Han Solo Film Speculations!
Jondee here on Corellia,
The announcement of Donald Glover in the role of Lando Calrissian adding to the cast with Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo in the Han Solo anthology film leads to some speculation. Han Solo is born on Corellia on 3, a year after Lando Calrissian was born on Socorro, and the year before Anakin Skywalker builds his first lightsaber. This would be three years after TPM and seven years before AoTC. Corellia is an important world in the Core Worlds section of the galaxy. Socorro is in the Outer Rim. I didn’t forget Chewbacca he was born on – 168 on Kashyyyk in the Mid Rim. So Chewbacca would be 165 when Han was born. He was 181 during RoTS when we saw him. Han was seen as a young boy in RoTS artwork which would make him 10 years old at that time. Kathleen Kennedy had said, “[Han will] probably in the high teens, low 20s. We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.” She’s noting the RoTS plan. My guess is that Han would be 25 or 26 which is three – four years before ANH. In Legends, this puts it at the time when he makes the life debt with Chewbacca. Earlier, he was trying to enter the Imperial Academy. So other characters with a 25 or 26 year old Han (the year would be 28 or 29), Chewbacca is 190 or 191, and Lando is 26 or 27. Again, in Legends, Lando has the Millennium Falcon, he won it on 29 in a sabaac game with Cix Trouvee in the Han Solo trilogy novel, The Hutt Gambit (1997) by A.C. Crispin. Yes, canon can re-write any of this, but I think the basics of the time is still intact. I’m thinking Lando will win it from Captain Oxus or Montross Holdaack, characters in the early drafts of Star Wars when Han was a cabin boy. It could be that Han runs into one or both of these characters in the film. Maybe Oxus or Montross will be the villain after Han and Lando.
We’ve never seen the sabaac game on film. It first appeared in the Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu (1983) novel by L. Neil Smith. The game has seventy-six cards with numbered cards and four suits. The goal of the game is to get a value from cards closest to 23, -23 is fine too. Pure sabaac is a 23 or -23, the positive value beats a negative, called an Idiot’s Array it has a card called The Idiot worth 0 and other cards, it beats a pure sabaac. The values of the cards are randomly changed by a computer. I think playing sabaac would establish Lando as a gambler, but I don’t think the Millennium Falcon will be bet on with Han yet. The film may open with an action scene, Han before meeting Chewbacca or Lando, maybe escaping Montross or bounty hunters (not Boba Fett). Maybe we get the young Han trying sabaac when angry Montross pulls out a blaster or he gets chased by cheated players. Bob Iger revealed in a talk at the Deutsche Bank 2016 Media, Internet & Telecom Conference that it will be “an origin story about Han Solo and Chewie.” So I think this will be Han as in the Imperial Academy on Carida (which we’ve never seen on film) flying a TIE fighter! This may be the opening scene, a battle with TIE fighters and then we get cadet Solo, but I think the sabaac opening will establish Han as a roguish figure. Han’s saving Chewie is what ends his naval career. Han’s fellow cadet is Mako Spince and his flight instructor was Alexsandr Badure in The Hutt Gambit. I think Han’s Corellian Bloodstripes that are seen on his pants will be noted in an Academy scene, an award for bravery by the Corellians. It is unknown how he earned his first stripe, but the second is said to be for rescuing Chewbacca. Maybe he earns it in an Academy scene. He becomes a lieutenant and in 27 (Han would be 24), Chewbacca frees a ship of Wookie slaves, and it is disabled by TIE fighters. Han defies Commander Nyklas’ order to kill Chewie which leads to his discharge. The event is depicted in Chewbacca #2 (2000) by Darko Macan and Dusty Abell. This is at the time of the first season of Star Wars: Rebels where Lando Calrissian is on Lothal setting them up with a scene for a puffer pig. It’s possible that Lando was a former cadet in the Academy with Han, but dropped out. The A.C. Crispin version has Chewie working on the Imperial Hall of Heroes when Nyklas is about to whip Chewbacca and is stopped by Han. This doesn’t have Chewie piloting in space, is kinda boring, and seems like a strange setting for the first meeting. I figure Joonas Suotamo who played Chewbacca in The Force Awakens will play him in the Han Solo film, but I hope the meeting of Han and Chewie and the life debt will be played by Peter Mayhew.
I think this shouldn’t be the opening scene because we need to establish Han as an Imperial cadet, if this is kept in canon, and there is much to cover with Han and Lando. It seems like we will get Han taking Chewbacca to Kashyyyk, where he learns Shyriiwook (the Wookie language), and maybe where the life debt is sworn. I think this is why Chewie’s family was brought into canon. This will be the most interesting part of the film since we haven’t seen Chewbacca’s family since the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and this is the chance to redeem them. Probably it’s just Mallatobuck who becomes Chewie’s wife on 29 after Han wins the Falcon from Lando. I also think this would cover Han and Chewbacca starting their smuggling career, but not the Kessel Run. Smuggling is where they get tangled with Lando. Maybe he hires Han and Chewie for the Kessel Run to settle with Montross, but not in record time. Han makes his famous Kessel Run in 32 for Jabba the Hutt. The Kessel Run was actually seen in “The Second Kessel Run” comic strip by Russ Helm and Russ Manning in 1980. It is a potato shaped planet which has its atmosphere taken away by a nearby black holes called The Maw. I read about in Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Search (1994) part of the Jedi Academy trilogy. Spice is mined there, we know from C-3PO’s remarks, and the run is controlled by Imperials so smugglers have to take risks. The Kessel Run is usually 18 parsecs so Han’s boast of 12 parsecs notes his incredible risk and luck not only navigating The Maw, but also The Pit, an asteroid field in a nebula that stops sensors. I sense Lando will earn Han’s trust, in Hutt’s Gambit, Lando saves Han from Boba Fett on Nar Shadda in 29. Then the end of the movie could be Lando’s Kessel Run in the Falcon. Han wins the Falcon in Legends at the Cloud City Sabaac Tournament from Lando in 27. This was depicted in The Hutt Gambit. It is interesting if the film is set in 27 when Han meets Chewie or 29 when Han wins the Falcon or if these events are combined in canon. We will find out on May 25, 2018.