What Happens in the Han Solo Film?
Jondee here on Corellia,
The Han Solo anthology film is set for release on May 25, 2018. It features a script by Lawrence Kasdan and his son, Jon Kasdan, which brought Kasdan back to the Star Wars franchise. He is going full circle with the Han Solo story. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are set for the directors of the film. They were the directors of 21 Jump Street (2012) and The Lego Movie (2014). Lord and Miller made a statement about the film: “This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us. This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you’re late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you’ve loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.” The official log line on the film, “The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley.” Kathleen Kennedy said about Han’s age in the film, “He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s. We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”
Han Solo was described by George Lucas in The Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller script, “A tough James Dean style starpilot about twenty-five years old. A cowboy in a starship — simple, sentimental and cocksure of himself.” He is from Corellia, a Core World planet which had important starship yards and companies like the Corellian Engineering Corporation. It was the builder of the YT-1300 freighter which became known as the Millennium Falcon. He boasts, “It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.” This is a famous smuggling run to the planet Kessel which is usually 18 parsecs long. Expanded Universe explained it as a dangerous route takes ships past a cluster of black holes called The Maw and The Pit, a nebula where pilots have to navigate blind through asteroids. The Falcon is heavily modified by Han and Chewbacca. It has a 0.5 hyperdrive rating. Military starships like the Star Destroyer have Class 2 hyperdrives. Han wears Corellian bloodstripes on the side of his pants. The award is given to pilots who have shown courage under fire. Han was a cabin boy for Captain Oxus in the second draft of the script. He fakes a reactor leak with Chewbacca and Montross Holdaack to steal Oxus’ ship, a TDF104 class ship. Will Oxus or Holdaack show up in the anthology film?
Han Solo’s age was established as 29 BBY, but this may be changed with the new movie. This would place him as born three years after Phantom Menace, he would be 10 years old at the time of Revenge of the Sith when Lucas floated around the idea of having the young Han show up in a cameo. The only part of the Expanded Universe (Legends) that explored Han Solo’s back story was in the Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin. The three novels begun with The Paradise Snare which had the young orphan Han Solo taken in by Garris Shrike. The smuggler keeps a gang of children to beg and pick pocket on different worlds (shades of Oliver Twist). He learns Shyriiwook (Chewbacca’s language) from the cook, Dewlanna, who sacrifices her life for his freedom. Han researches records and finds a “Berethron e Solo” who introduced democracy to Corellia. Another Solo, Dalla the Black, was a feared pirate. He also finds what would be his cousin, Thrackan Sal-Solo, who is seven years older than Han. Thrackan finds Han trying to break into his house on Corellia. His mother, Tiion, is stricken, but recognizes Han. Thrackan tells Han that Tira Gama Solo and Denn Solo lived on Tralus, in the Cornelian system. Denn and his son disappeared and Thrackan suspects Han is the son of Denn’s son. Still, Thrackan is a bully and Han threatens him before finally leaving. There were rumors of a brother in the film, could this be Thrackan?
At age 19, he plans his escape from Shrike and ends up on Ylesia, a religious planet with “priests” hiring him out as a pilot. One of his runs is to Alderaan. He meets on Ylesia a Corellian woman whom he frees from the control of the “priests”, she eventually remembers that her name is Bria Tharen, and they escape. Eventually, Han makes it into the Imperial Academy, his dream, and becomes an ace pilot. The next book is The Hutt Gambit (Han is age 24 to 25). He has been discharged from the Imperial Navy, ends up with a life debt to Chewbacca (how this happened is not in the book!), and starts working in Nar Shaddaa. He is hunted down by Boba Fett and hit with a toxin. Lando Calrissian saves him (so Han can teach him how to pilot his ship, the Millennium Falcon) and takes care of Boba Fett. This may be the time the Han Solo film takes place. The last book, Rebel Dawn (Han is age 27 to 30), opens with Han who has won the Falcon from Lando (again mentioned, but not seen in the book!) and we also get the Kessel Run where Han has to dump the spice to escape from Imperials. So it is possible that Han has the Millennium Falcon at the time period of the Han Solo film and has Chewbacca as his co-pilot or the story of how Chewbacca swears his life debt. It would be interesting if Chewbacca thinks back to the younger Han after Force Awakens.
