With ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story‘ finally coming to theaters next month, one would almost think the rumor mill would start to run dry on the film, after everything that went down during its production. However, it seems much like the iconic character himself, there is more going on behind the scenes than we thought. Apparently, Disney/ Lucasfilm have more plans for the fabled smuggler beyond this first outing, and have already begun making their preparations. During a recent interview with Esquire magazine, ‘Solo’ star Alden Ehrenreich was asked about how many ‘Star Wars’ films he was signed up for, and he candidly replied:
“Three…“I don’t know if that’s officially, uh, public. But, yeah.”
Three films could mean a lot of things, starting with basic boring reasoning that the contract Ehrenreich signed with Lucasfilm was one in which they had him sign up for multiple films “just in case,” hedging their bets so they would not have to recast if ‘Solo’ was a huge hit and Ehrenreich came back with massive demands for a new contract. It could also mean that they plan on including Han Solo in other planned prequel films, not as the star, but as a supporting character, or maybe even just a cameo. But what is the most exciting prospect is the idea that this could mean ‘Solo’ is not a “solo” film at all, but rather the start of a trilogy, in the style of the two ‘Han Solo’ prequel trilogy books in the old ‘Star Wars’ Expanded Universe, which got to play around with Han’s backstory, showed us more about the characters and relationships that affect his life after we meet him in ‘A New Hope,’ and just let us watch as he became the smuggler we all knew and loved in the original films.
Of course, if ‘Solo’ bombs these ideas will all fade away, but this is ‘Star Wars’ after all, and even George Lucas’s prequels did decently at the box-office, so I can assume ‘Solo’ will make money one way or another. By then hopefully Lucasfilm will let the public know of its game-plan here, as they have been very coy about movies after ‘Episode IX,’ and it would be interesting to see what else they have in mind.
Sources: Esquire
