Han and Qi'ra are two slum-rats living in the industrial hellhole that is Corellia, a planet whose proud people have been reluctantly turned into shipbuilders for the Galactic Empire. Han manages to escape, but vows to return one day to save the woman he loves. Three years later he's been bounced from the Imperial Academy, served as a grunt in a confusing war and then defected to join a criminal gang looking for a big score. Han still wants to get home, but first he needs a crew, a ship and a co-pilot.
In 1972, during the shooting of his second feature film, American Graffiti, George Lucas turned to his young lead actor Ron Howard and told him about the plans he had to make an exciting, Buck Rogers-riffing space opera franchise, a story of rip-roaring space adventures with scoundrels as heroes, blasters and lots of action. Forty-six years later, in a plot twist few could have seen coming, Ron Howard finally made that film.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is certainly not the best Star Wars movie, but it may be the purest. This is a film about a roguish hero who sets out on a quest to pull off a heist to get the girl and it all goes a bit sideways and he learns some lessons and the audience has a huge amount of fun along the way. This is Star Wars with an alternate take on the hero's journey, without the space wizards or magic or laser swords or prophecies, but plenty of blasters, quips and explosions. It's also a surprising Star Wars movie: almost any nerf herder who's seen the Empire Strike Back incarnation of Han Solo could write a version of this movie which was safer, duller and very predictable. It fell to the movie's bizarre gestation period (including a change of directors two-thirds of the way through production) and formidable writing team (including Lawrence Kasdan making his farewell to the franchise that made his name) to turn it into a more surprising and interesting beast.
Solo is relentless. It's a film that lands with a massive bang - a chase through the tunnels of Corellia - and then does not let up for over two hours. Set piece after set piece rains down on the viewer, but the Kasdan team and the directors (I'm not even going to guess who directed what scenes here) keep the movie buoyant, not allowing it to get too bogged down in exposition. Dialogue sparkles and the action is very well-handled, with the fights and chases being easy to follow. There's a surprising physicality to the film, with a reliance on actual stunts and sets rather than CGI, which is good to see. The fast-moving flow of the film also sometimes masks some dubious plot twists - one coincidental meeting is so far beyond implausible it's not even remotely credible, but hey, the Force or something - but it's not like Star Wars hasn't had a few of those before.
There's also a fortunately strong reliance on the actors. Alden Ehrenreich won't be nominated for an Oscar, but is mostly effective at channelling the spirit of Harrison Ford (and he's better at doing that than trying to do an outright imitation), albeit a younger and even more cocksure version. Emilia Clarke is great as his love interest Qi'ra, and the movie takes her character in a very surprising (and welcome) direction that goes beyond being just a motivational force for Han's journey. But the real plaudits will be awarded to Woody Harrelson, whose grizzled scoundrel-mentor character of Beckett is way more Han than Han himself, and particularly Donald Glover. His take on Lando Calrissian is the highlight of the film, with formidable comic timing, surprising emotional depth and a performance that channels the spirit of a pre-1980 Billy Dee Williams. Even better, Lando isn't allowed to be too dominant a force in the movie: he has his role to play and departs once that is done. Paul Bettany also has a small but significant role as the film's erstwhile antagonist, a criminal overlord who first Beckett and then Han get indebted to and have to pull off a dangerous heist to appease.
Hardcore Star Wars fans will also enjoy the film for its numerous call-outs to the defunct Expanded Universe (particularly a nod to the Maw Installation and the dangerous approach to Kessel) and one particular moment that will blindside the 90% of the audience who hasn't seen The Clone Wars or Star Wars: Rebels, leaving the other 10% feeling particularly smug as they nod to one another across the cinema and say, "Ah, of course" in a probably insufferable manner. After seeing the Marvel Cinematic Universe go to some lengths to avoid mentioning its TV spin-offs as canon in the films, seeing Star Wars just breezily and casually do it in the most unexpected manner possible is terrific, if extremely geeky. More casual Star Wars fans will appreciate the nods to other Star Wars films and stories (C3-PO asks a question in The Empire Strikes Back which never gets answered, but it does here), with the film having some fun in giving us very brief answers to questions that no-one ever asked ("Where did Han Solo get his blaster?") but occasionally getting rather silly in giving more in-depth answers to questions no-one ever asked ("Where did Han Solo's name come from?").
The movie does have several significant flaws, however. The first is that towards the end of the movie it goes a bit too obviously in the direction of sequel-bait. Solo is directed towards a new mission, several side-characters are revealed to have unexpected agendas and a new villain is unveiled. With rumours circulating that Disney are considering two sequels to this movie, they clearly leave enough on the deck to facilitate that. However, the film does hit most of the beats you expect and if those sequels don't happen - Solo's incredibly low-key release, mixed word of mouth and the massive juggernaut of Infinity War still commanding the box office could result in this being one of the lowest-grossing Star Wars movies to date - there's enough closure here not to make the absence of a sequel hurt too much (they can also rather cleverly tie those elements into the Obi-Wan movie instead, if necessary). The second problem is that the movie is definitely too long. This film works best as a pulpy space adventure, a rip-roaring, fast-paced adventure. The two hour-and-ten-minute run time isn't entirely compatible with that and the film does feel like a set piece or two could have been yanked out to get this movie down to a brisker ninety minutes or so.
For a film with as tortured a development process as this one, Solo: A Star Wars Story (****) ends up being surprisingly focused and enjoyable, with great performances and a fun storyline that isn't as predictable as you'd think. Of the new generation Star Wars films, this one views with The Force Awakens as the best: The Force Awakens is better-cast with a far stronger villain, but Solo is far less predictable and manages more genuine surprises. The movie is on general release now.
Because we can't just have the trailer any more, Lucasfilm have released a trailer for the first trailer for Star Wars: Solo, their spin-off prequel movie about the young adventures of Han Solo.
Looks okay. We'll find out more tomorrow, apparently, when we get the full trailer.
Veteran director Ron Howard has rolled into town to take over the next Star Wars movie. The Solo Han Solo movie (apparently shooting under the working title Solo) was mostly done with shooting when "creative differences" led to directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller departing/being fired/being exiled to the spice mines of Kessel.
Ron Howard and George Lucas, who have collaborated several times.
Howard will be completing principal photography on the picture as well as helming reshoots later in the summer. Howard and producers Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan will be reviewing the footage shot by Lord and Miller to see what material can still be used and what will have to be reshot.
The film is still on track for release on 25 May 2018, just five months after Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hits cinemas in December, although delays are likely if the production team decide more significant reshoots are needed.
Although Howard hasn't been involved in a Star Wars project before, he did star in George Lucas's 1973 movie American Graffiti (alongside a young Harrison Ford) which led to his casting in the sitcom Happy Days and kickstarted his Hollywood career, including collaborating on the movie Willow with Lucas, so there is some synchronicity involved in this news.
Rumours that Howard has said, at any point, "Hold my beer," and "I got this," have yet to be confirmed.
In an unexpected movie, the Star Wars Han Solo spin-off movie has lost both of its directors more than halfway through shooting.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who had formerly directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street and its sequel, had been employed by Lucasfilm to helm the Han Solo film (which apparently has the working title Solo) and filming began back in February. All seemed well, with cast and crew posting images from what seemed to be a relaxed and fun shoot.
It now turns out that this was not the case. Having tapped Lord and Miller for their loose, improvisational and comedic style, Lucasfilm seemed to develop issues when they approached the Star Wars project with a loose, improvisational and comedic style. In particular, writer-producer Lawrence Kasdan was unhappy with them encouraging the actors to go off-script and producer/Lucasfilm Supreme Leader Kathleen Kennedy was concerned that the film's tone wasn't in keeping with all things Star Wars.
Things came to a head when the studio began planning reshoots, with Kennedy making it clear she wanted the directors to get back on-script and curb their more chaotic sensibilities. The directors refused, apparently leading to them leaving. Some are reporting that they were effectively fired by Lucasfilm, but their own statement puts a more positive spin on things, saying the decision was taken mutually.
Directors leaving a project is hardly unusual, but about three-quarters of the way through actual shooting is unheard of in modern cinema. Lucasfilm are apparently now keen on getting a replacement on board as soon as possible, with steady hand, experienced industry veteran and past George Lucas collaborator Ron Howard looking the most likely to pick up the slack. Joe Johnston is also in the frame if Howard is unavailable, with the final choice being Kasdan himself (although this would have to be a last resort, due to Director's Guild rules on replacing directors with other personnel already on a film).
The Han Solo movie is still aiming for a May 2018 release. Expect to see this fall back to December if the producers decide more extensive reshoots - or even a full remounting of the picture from scratch - are required.
The Solo Han Solo Movie (which should really be its title) now has a storyline. Well, you'd hope it already had one given they're shooting it now, but the story has now been made public.
The film will span six years in the life of everyone's favourite smuggler, starting with him on Corellia as a 18-year-old and ending eight years later with him in possession of the Millennium Falcon, having met Lando and Chewbacca along the way. This is an interesting new turn for the Star Wars movies, which have typically been tight, focused affairs. This new, multi-year epic is a new approach.
The Solo Han Solo Movie is currently scheduled for release in May 2018. It is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street) and written by Jake Kasdan and his father Lawrence (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark). Alden Ehreneich stars as Han Solo, with Donald Glover as Lando, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Woody Harrelson as Beckett (Han's mentor) and Emilia Clarke, Michael K. Williams and Thandie Newton is as-yet-unnamed roles.
The actress, best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones and Sarah Connor in last year's disappointing new Terminator movie, Genisys, joins announced castmembers Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Her role in the film is not known.
The Han Solo movie will be the second stand-alone spin-off Star Wars movie, following on from next month's Rogue One. It will start filming in January and is currently slated for release on 25 May 2018, although that is subject to change. It will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and may be the start of a trilogy covering Han Solo's life leading up to the events of A New Hope.
Actor, writer and musician Donald Glover has been cast as the young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo-focused Star Wars spin-off movie, currently due to hit cinemas in 2018.
Donald Glover is best-known for his role as Troy Barnes in the comedy series Community. He currently stars on Atlanta, which he also co-writes. He is also a double-Grammy Award-nominated musician for his work under the moniker Childish Gambino.
Glover, a major Star Wars fan, has been long a fan-favourite for the role of the young Lando. He will also be appearing in the new Spider-Man movie, Homecoming, due next year.
In four months Star Wars: Rogue One will hit cinema screens. It will be the biggest risk in the forty year history of the franchise. It'll be the first movie in the series which does not revolve around lightsabres, the Force or the Skywalker family. A Dirty Dozen in space, it will carefully explore whether mass audiences are willing to watch stories in that universe which are not related to the characters or premise of the original movies.
"That's a nice eclipse. But wait, this planet has no moon, how can we have an eclipse?"
"That's no moon..."
That said, it's not that much of a risk. The film will be partially set on the Death Star and characters like Mon Mothma and even Darth Vader will appear (if only, in the latter case, for what sounds like an effective cameo). And whilst cinema audiences may not be used to Star Wars without the Skywalkers, it's something many millions of more dedicated fans have experienced for decades in mediums like the comic books, novels, video games and animated TV series like The Clone Wars and Rebels. Even if, somehow, Rogue One does badly, it'll only be another year before Episode VIII (still, curiously, not titled by Lucasfilm) hits cinema screens to continue the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Finn, Rey and everyone else from The Force Awakens.
We know that Disney wants to release a Star Wars movie every year from now until the end of time (probably) and this will mean them telling completely original stories in the setting. It's actually a clever move, because after Rogue One the other planned spin-off movies are actually dove-tailing into the main saga by exploring the backstories of major characters, which gives them time to see if Rogue One is a success before committing to more original movies. So here's a look at what we know about the upcoming movies and throw some ideas about for films beyond that:
In Production
Star Wars: Rogue One Directed by Gareth Edwards Release Date: 16 December 2016 Status: Late post-production
You should have already seen the trailers for this. Rogue One is a prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, taking place just weeks before the events of A New Hope. The film chronicles the completion of the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance getting wind of the Empire's new superweapon and a crack team of morally dubious commandos being dispatched to steal vital technical data on the weapon. It's this data that eventually gets into the hands of Princess Leia and R2-D2, kicking off the entire saga.
This film is unusual in that it focuses on non-Force-using characters, with Edwards describing it as a war film more in the vein of The Dirty Dozen than the fantasy adventure fun of the previous movies. The film will apparently have a slightly "grittier" tone than the main films and will probably not even have a scene-setting opening crawl. It will also be the first Star Wars movie to not be scored by John Williams. The film is likely to be a big success but whether it will match the heights of The Force Awakens remains to be seen: the marketing for this film has been extremely restrained so far, compared to where we were a year ago for Episode VII.
Star Wars: Episode VIII Directed by Rian Johnson Release Date: December 2017 Status: Early post-production
This film picks up after the end of The Force Awakens, with Rey trying to convince Luke Skywalker to train her in the ways of the Force, Finn recovering from the injuries he sustained in the battle with Kylo Ren and Ren, himself badly wounded, being taken to Supreme Leader Snoke to be healed and learn more of the Dark Side of the Force. The Resistance is reeling from the destruction of Hosnian Prime, but the First Order has also been dealt a serious blow with the destruction of Starkiller Base, likely leading to renewed fighting between the two sides.
The second of the new Star Wars episodes is directed by Rian Johnson, who is extremely well-respected for his original SF movies Brick and Looper, not to mention his excellent work on Breaking Bad. This movie will be huge - potentially bigger even than The Force Awakens - and hopefully a bit more original on the story side of things.
Star Wars: Han Solo Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Release Date: 15 May 2018 (likely, in my opinion, to change) Status: Pre-production and casting
This film will explore the backstory of everyone's favourite smuggler, Han Solo. The movie is apparently set ten years before the events of A New Hope and will explain how Solo acquires the Millennium Falcon, with a young Lando Calrissian also expected to appear. You'd also expect Chewbacca to show up, but that has not yet been confirmed.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have a huge amount of both geek cred and studio support, having taken The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street (plus its sequel) to box office success and critical acclaim. They recently announced that Alden Ehrenreich will be starring as the young Han Solo, and the Internet approved mightily of the (unconfirmed) rumour that Community actor Donald Glover will be playing Lando. Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, is also co-writing this movie with his son. This seems like a pretty strong project, with Han Solo's roguish adventures being the perfect setting for a Star Wars movie. Interestingly, this may also be a relatively small-scale Star Wars movie without the planet-destroying superweapons and galaxy-spanning wars of the other movies. Some rumours have suggested it may also take cues from Ocean's Eleven, which would be interesting although possibly self-defeating (why make a Han Solo, er, solo movie if you then immediately add lots of other main characters?).
Even the suggestion that Disney might spin this out into a trilogy of films ending shortly before the events of Episode IV isn't necessarily a bad thing, providing the writers, directors and, most impotantly, the actor all deliver on the tremendous promise.
Star Wars: Episode IX Directed by Colin Trevorrow Release Date: December 2019 Status: Pre-production and writing
Given that Episode VIII is still sixteen months away, it's probably premature to speculate too much about Episode IX. But this film will likely resolve the fates of Kylo Ren, Finn and Rey and the First Order and finally bring peace to the galaxy, at least until such time that Disney's finances require the inevitable Episode X-XII trilogy be made.
Colin Trevorrow was a bit of an eye-opening choice for this film, with only two previous movies on his resume and, unlike Rian Johnson, neither were critical successes. But when one of those movies was the franchise-rejeuvenating, money-making machine Jurassic World, that doesn't really matter. What is more hopeful is that Rian Johnson is hanging around to co-write the script.
In Development
These ideas have all been thrown around by Lucasfilm in interviews before, so we can assume that they have at least been discussed.
Star Wars: Boba Fett
A film revolving around everyone's favourite space mercenary Boba Fett has been mooted several times before. Fett was the break-out star of the original trilogy, a background character with a bare handful of words who was defeated by Han Solo by accident and eaten by a giant hole in the desert, but somehow retained his cool aura. The Clone Wars animated series actually did a reasonable job of filling in his character and backstory.
I'm a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, Boba Fett worked in the original trilogy because he was hardly in it. He showed up, showed some sass to Darth Vader and then apparently died. Both the Expanded Universe and the new canon have ruled that he survived his fall into the Sarlaac, but the Expanded Universe novels did arguably then over-use him, particularly in trying to make him a morally-justified Mandalorian warlord. Part of me thinks Fett should remain firmly off-screen.
But the approach suggested by Lawrence Kasdan is also interesting. Kasdan, who is known not to be a fan of the prequel trilogy, apparently penned a treatment in which the Boba Fett from Attack of the Clones is attacked and killed by a Clint Eastwood-esque "man with no name" who then steals Fett's identity before the events of the original trilogy. It's a nice idea, but I get the impression that Lucasfilm vetoed it, possibly feeling it was a bit of an insult to George Lucas (who clearly intended them to the be the same character, even redubbing all of Fett's lines in the original trilogy with the Attack of the Clones actor's voice). Kasdan later announced that Han Solo will be his last movie, so the Boba Fett project - which appears now to have been moved to the backburner - will have to find another writer.
Star Wars: Yoda
A Yoda-centric Star Wars story has actually been on the cards since George Lucas made Return of the Jedi. When the Expanded Universe took off a few years after that movie came out, Lucas forbade any of the novel authors, RPG designers or TV scriptwriters from giving any information at all on Yoda or his species. The closest anyone got was when Knights of the Old Republic II featured an alien of the same race. So clearly Lucas wanted to carefully protect Yoda's backstory for another time.
That said, a Yoda-centric movie might be a hard sell. The prequel trilogy didn't really endear audiences more to the character (who was rather more humourless and less relatable than his appearances in the original trilogy) and, like Fett, Yoda works more in small doses. Maybe a film that explores his 900-year backstory without necessarily featuring him in every scene might work. I suspect this film is also now on the backburner as Lucasfilm debate how to handle it.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan
This project doesn't appear to have been on Lucasfilm's radar, but came up as a possibility after Ewan McGregor enthusiastically endorsed the idea in interviews. McGregor had been lukewarm on his experiences filming the prequel trilogy (noting his numerous emotional scenes where he had only a tennis ball to react to), but apparently is keen to revisit the character with a better writer and more meaty material to handle. This film would presumably be set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and see Obi-Wan called away from Tatooine to undertake a new adventure. It is also possible that this film could dovetail into either (or both) the proposed Boba Fett and Yoda projects. There's also the fact that in A New Hope Luke notes he has met Obi-Wan before, so this movie could also explore that first meeting.
Mostly, I think a lot of people feel bad that an actor of McGregor's calibre was let down by poor material in the prequel trilogy and want to give him another shot with the character.
Possible Ideas
These are ideas that fans and writers have thrown around, with variable amounts of plausibility.
Star Wars: Rogue Two
Probably not revolving the character from The Empire Strikes Back (although at this rate, in another fifty movies' time that may actually be a viable idea). More plausibly, this could be another adventure with the Rogue One crew, or whoever survives that movie, perhaps going after the Death Star II plans (presumably helped by many Bothans) or getting involved in more between-movie shenanigans.
More likely would be a film that tries to do the same kind of thing as Rogue One: a completely new adventure with a whole new cast, just set in the wider Star Wars universe.
Star Wars: Mace Windu
Like Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson has expressed interest in reprising his prequel trilogy character of Mace Windu, famed for his purple lightsabre. Unlike the proposed Obi-Wan movie, this would be rather more difficult since Mace Windu dies in Revenge of the Sith when his arm is chopped off by Anakin Skywalker and he is then blasted out of the window of the Chancellor's office with Force lightning.
OR DOES HE?
No, he does, but Jackson has heroically argued that Windu could have survived his multi-mile plummet onto the streets of Coruscant and gone into hiding, emerging many years later to wreak havoc on the Empire, presumably before dying for real (to explain why he's not in the original trilogy). It's a nice idea, but given the already-ridiculous return of Boba Fett from the dead I think this is probably an idea best avoided.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
BioWare's classic 2003 computer RPG is widely-cited as the finest piece of Star Wars material ever created outside the movies, with its 2004 sequel from Obsidian Entertainment (which explores a much more morally murky idea of the Star Wars universe) not far behind it. These two games have spawned enormous numbers of popular spin-offs, including the current online multiplayer game The Old Republic. A film version of the story, or exploring the same time period (4,000 years before the original trilogy) when the Jedi and Sith are both numerous and engaged in galaxy-spanning conflicts, could be quite interesting.
Star Wars: Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn is the most popular Star Wars character not to appear in the films, instead having been the star villain of Timothy Zahn's early 1990s novels which launched the Expanded Universe. The EU is gone but Thrawn has been carried forwards into the new continuity, with him set to appear as a villain in Season 3 of the Rebels animated series and Zahn writing a new novel about him.
A movie featuring Thrawn as a villain would be very popular. Hugo Weaving was previously a fan favourite to play him, but Benedict Cumberbatch now seems to be the actor of choice to take on the role. Such a film would also, if set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, explore a time period which is still a bit murky and may allow other EU characters like Mara Jade to appear in the new canon.
This assumes that Thrawn won't just be killed off in Rebels, but that would appear to be a waste of an excellent villain.
Star Wars: The Huttfather
Jabba the Hutt stars in a Godfather-riffing trilogy exploring his backstory, rising from a poor young Hutt in the swamps of Nal Hutta to an immigrant to the Vertical City of Nar Shaddaa to his rise to a powerful crimelord of the Outer Rim, based on Tatooine. Robert De Niro will play the young Hutt in lengthy flashbacks.
Okay, I made that up. But at this rate this will be a viable project in about ten years or so.
