Han, Chewie, Lando and the Millennium
Falcon are some of the most iconic characters from the Original Star Wars trilogy. Longtime fans of the Star Wars saga will remember reading about
the adventures of the galaxy’s most notorious space pirate before he met up
with Luke, Leia and Ben Kenobi through the character bios and many Expanded Universe books that
have been written about them, including A. C. Crispin’s Han Solo trilogy, and Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures.
Well, now we finally get to see for
ourselves these mythic events and characters brought to life on the big screen
for the first time when Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in cinemas worldwide on May 25th.
Fans will finally get to witness the legend
of Solo’s humble beginnings and shady past as an orphan growing up on his home
world of Corellia. How he and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca first met, how he joined
a gang of thieves running scams under the mentorship of their leader, and how he
eventually won the famous Millennium Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy,
from his sometime friend Lando Calrissian in a card game.
Most of us have heard how Han escaped his life of crime on Corellia to joined the Empire as a TIE pilot only to be
disillusioned and discharged from the Imperial navy when he refused to participate
in the enslavement of Wookiees and saved the life of one such Wookiee named
Chewbacca, whose custom was to swear a life debt to Han. Together they became
one of the most notorious partners running spice for the Hutt clans, one of
whose members was Jabba the Hutt.
It will be interesting to see just how much
of this original backstory of Han Solo is kept in the film as much of the Expanded
Universe books are no longer considered canon by Disney when they bought Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. But from the evidence seen in the new
trailers for the film online it would seem that much of Han Solo’s legendary
life remains intact although we will see how much of it was altered and where new
directions are explored.
As we have seen in Rogue One (2016) and The Last Jedi (2017), some of the vast non-canon material produced for the Expanded
Star Wars Universe could eventually end up being used in a Star Wars film somewhere in the future, thus returning it to canon
status.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
reportedly features a mud planet called Mimban, which was first introduced by
Alan Dean Foster, the ghostwriter of the first Star Wars novelization, in the very first expanded Star Wars novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye back in 1978,
which is a non-canon novel continuing the adventures of Luke Skywalker and Princess
Leia Organa shortly after the events of A New Hope. Mimban will now make it’s feature film debut in Solo.
First reports of the Premiere showing of Solo in Hollywood and at Cannes last
week are very encouraging with many people proclaiming it a fun fast ride with
plenty of surprises that will satisfy the hard core faithful followers of the
saga.
By all accounts the decision to bring in longtime
friend of George Lucas and veteran Oscar winning director Ron Howard half way
through production to finish the project on time has paid off and saved the
film from potential disaster. (or at least from a delayed release) The
important thing now for fans to remember is not to dwell on the production woes
but to judge the finished product on the screen.
I’m looking forward to seeing a different
kind of Star Wars movie we haven’t
seen before from the point of view of beloved characters not associated with
the Force or the Jedi Knights. Han Solo has no special powers, he’s the
quintessential cynic loner with a conscience who stumbles through one pitfall after
another while selfishly pursuing riches. He never imagined he would one day meet
a princess who would convince him to join a rebellion to defeat the
tyrannical Empire he was once a part of.
JP
