Solo: a star wars story
solo: a star Wars story I Excitement over the Corellians origin story seems oddly tempered. But has it got some surprises in store yet?
Do you have a bad feeling about the Han prequel?
As Han Solo’s fake-out departure and return at the climax of
Star Wars warned us, never take a saucy space rogue at his word. Pity people are doing just that right now. Thirty-eight years after the pirate advised the princess to chill (“Don’t get excited…”) in The Empire Strikes Back, the buzz surrounding Solo: A Star Wars Story seems almost cooler than a welcome in a Mos Eisley dive-bar.
Ten months back, the reserve would have made sense. In case you’ve been trapped inside a space monster, Lucasfilm had trouble at Solo’s spice mine. Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie) were fired, then replaced by ol’ safe-hands Ron Howard. Rumours then emerged that leading Han-man Alden Ehrenreich
was seeing an acting coach, turning the outlook ‘cloudy with a chance of spaceballs’ for Han fans. ‘Safe pair of hands’, ‘struggling actor…’ Was this really good enough for our favourite foxy smuggler?
Cannily, Lucasfilm’s response was to dig in and play the long game. As Howard charmed fans on Instagram, official trailers and images were held back, perhaps to give The Last Jedi or Howard breathing room. Either way, word slowly trickled out that Solo could be a Kessel Run of fun. Woody Harrelson called Howard “a joy”; Thandie Newton quietened talk that 80 per cent of the film was reshot.
Then came the promo stuff: posters, tie-in books, Falcon-based theatre standees… What more could Solowatchers want, besides a lifetime’s supply of waistcoats? No, not merch tie-ins with Solo cups: we wanted the trailer, though that caused more division when it docked. Some said
Ehrenreich seemed serviceable, others said serviceable didn’t cut it. And while most agreed Donald Glover looked sharp as Lando Calrissian, others worried about his ride. Lovingly revealed as “garbage” in
The Force Awakens, the Millennium Falcon looked… clean. What had he done to our ship?
Although a slicker Falcon makes timeline sense, perhaps fans’ sniffiness reflects a burn-out with origin stories. Perhaps it’s too soon after Luke’s floaty-robe moment for excitement about another Star Wars film; perhaps Harrison Ford’s performance is thought untouchable. Or, perhaps fan buzz about Star Wars prequels has been tempered by news of forward-looking tales: those saga extensions brewing under the watches of Jon Favreau, Game Of Thrones show-rulers David Benioff and DB Weiss, and The Last Jedi’s divisive director Rian Johnson.
But if Johnson’s standing among some Force-watchers is contested, Solo boasts at least one uniting, driving force. Writing with his son Jon, Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, The Force Awakens…) was an early advocate for Solo.
And father and son have declared terrific crime, western, adventure and comedy influences, namely Treasure Island, The Big Lebowski, Heat, Unforgiven and Gangster No 1. Gratuitous bowling and Paul Bettany-imposed torture? There are new hopes for Solo.
Howard’s filmography has some Dan Brown issues, but he brings speed-racing (Rush) and space-rescue (Apollo 13) experience to the hologram table. And he’s got form in rejuvenating ageing scoundrels (Cocoon). George Lucas conferred his blessing on-set, even inspiring a small scene. And Ehrenreich could yet bloom: given the task of filling the biggest boots in space, the Hail, Caesar! hunk deserves more time before we judge.
What’s more, the veil of secrecy under which the retro-fitted Falcon has flown gives Solo a fighting chance to surprise us. We don’t know how Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra fits in, beyond her long-standing ties to Han and Clarke’s description of her as “an enigma” crucial to his development. Ehrenreich promises plenty of character intrigue to underpin the inevitable fan-service shout-outs. This Han is “an idealist”, he says, so we’ll learn how time in a criminal underworld sharpened those Bogey-esque barbs. Han’s meet-cute with his hairy pal seems nicely choppy, too. “I think with anyone you meet in these tough worlds, trust doesn’t come easily, and both of them are very strong-willed,” Ehrenreich teases of formative Han/Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) relations.
Elsewhere, Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s droid L3-37 promises wit. Little has leaked about Harrelson’s Tobias Beckett, except his role as the father figure who employs Han on a heist-y job promises fresh spins on the family-style thrusts of saga high-points. As for Beckett’s barely glimpsed pal Val (Thandie Newton) and Paul Bettany’s even lessglimpsed gangster (no 1) Dryden Vos, isn’t it a relief to get a trailer that conceals more than it reveals?
We do know the set-pieces look fun, notably grungy spacetrain the Conveyex, which suggests a more grounded look than the Falcon under Lando. Talking of whom, much promise resides in the charismatic form of Glover, who teases a “more over the top” Calrissian.
If Solo also has a lot to prove, Glover’s pitch might calm nerves. After the on-screen losses of Han and Luke, Solo is about the good times, he says. “With this movie, we know they’re not going to die, y’know? We know, kind of, what happens, but how we got there is the crux of it. So, we’re allowed to have a lot more fun than the other movies.
“I think this movie’s, like,” he adds, “just a fun, summer film.” After all the fretting, maybe here’s where the excitement begins… KH
ETA | 25 MAY / SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY OPENS NEXT MONTH.
‘WE’RE ALLOWED TO HAVE A LOT MORE FUN THAN THE OTHER [STAR WARS] MOVIES’ DONALD GLOVER