Han Solo, the hit prequel
The feisty Star Wars character finally gets a movie of his own – and despite setbacks and scandals it’s proving a hit with critics and fans
CASTING controversies, superfan backlash and directors disappearing at the 11th hour – it was a film so riddled with setbacks it looked as if it might never see the light of day. But it did. And Star Wars fans mooched into movie houses to meet the young Han Solo with scepticism.
But in true Han fashion, the producers seem to have pulled a Wookie out of a hat – Solo: A Star Wars Origin Story has been raking in positive reviews almost as fast as the movie’s title character can do the Kessel Run.
It was a risky move on Disney-owned Lucasfilm’s part to reboot one of its bestloved characters withwith an almost entirely new cast – especially with Harrison Ford, the original Han, nowhere in sight.
But in a storyline set 10 years before the first film in the series, Star Wars (1977), Han, Chewy, Lando and the gang are a hit. In fact, a few die-hard fans and critics are calling it their favourite of all the films released since the franchise made a comeback in 1999.
Here’s what you need to know about Han, his pals and the behind-the-scenes drama involved in bringing them back to life.
Where the story fits in Star Wars loves a good prequel and in this one the mysterious Han Solo is finally stepping out of the shadows.
Before Han met Luke and Leia, he was a street urchin on oppressed planet Corellia, living a life of thievery with his lady love Qi’ra. The two come up with a clever plan to bribe their way off the plagued planet but get separated. Han makes it off and vows to find his way back to Qi’ra.
Fast-forward several years and our hero is a phenomenal pilot who’s been kicked out of the imperial fleet for insubordination.
Again, Han turns to crime – and, thanks to his charm, wits and nerve, he soon makes a name for himself in the criminal underworld.
His wayward ways lead him to Chewy, Lando and the ruler of the galactic underbelly, the all-powerful Dryden Vos.
Of course, Han also finds his way back to Qi’ra – but his grown-up paramour is now Dryden’s kept girlfriend . . .
Behind-the-scenes drama Initially in the cockpit were directing pair Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, best known for The Lego Movie and comedies
such as 21 Jump Street and the pilot episode for laugh-a-minute TV cop series Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Rumour has it that from the getgo Lord and Miller were steering the movie, written by Star Wars veteran Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jonathan, into more comedic waters. But the writers and Lucasfilm wanted to keep the film on an action- packed, space- fantasy course. An insider says the two directors had been encouraging too much improvisation on the actors’ part, which was thought to be shifting the story offcourse.
Sources told Entertainment Weekly thethe split was “a subtle oneone that became magnified over time”, but six months into production Lord and Miller were shown the door.
Both parties cited “creative differences” as the reason for the upheaval.
To make matters worse, just a month earlier Lucasfilm had let go the editor it originally hired for the project, Chris Dickens, giving no reason, and replaced him with Pietro Scalia.
Days after Lord and Miller were axed Oscar-winning director Ron Howard stepped in to take the wheel of the Millennium Falcon.
Howard, who’d reportedly turned down close friend George Lucas’ request to helm the movie Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, took over in June 2017, with just more than three weeks of scheduled principal photography remaining.
The new Han on the block When relative unknown actor Alden Ehrenreich (28) was cast as the swashbuckling space pirate, fans aimed their blasters squarely at him.
They took to social media in droves after the announcement, lamenting his “stomach-churningly” bad acting in past projects such as Hail, Caesar! and Beautiful Creatures.
“Hello, Alden? How would you like to be the new face for immeasurable fandom hatred for the rest of your career?” one user wrote of the enormous pressure the young actor would face in filling the 75-year-old Ford’s boots.
Then it emerged Lucasfilm bosses were so unhappy with their new Han they’d hired an acting coach to help.
But this was all blown out of proportion, Ehrenreich said. The “coach” in question was writer-director Maggie Kiley, and she’d been brought in to work with the entire cast.
“She was part of conversations that happened for a couple weeks at one point, but that was basically it,” Ehrenreich told Esquire in a recent interview.
He managed to rise to the challenge and silence his critics. “Alden Ehrenreich absolutely crushes the role to powder, swaggeringly reviving the memory of the young Harrison Ford’s romantic gallantry,” The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw writes.
Vanity Fair’s Andrew Barker agrees. “[Ehrenreich] nails Ford’s cocky gait, his roguish eye-twinkle, his puffed-cheeked finger-pointing,” he wrote, praising the “satisfying new spin” the young actor puts on an old character.
But the most satisfying praise Ehrenreich’s received no doubt came from his predecessor.
“I just thought the movie was spectacular,” Ford said after the film premiered. “And I thought Alden was so smart about what he did and how he did it. I just couldn’t be happier.”