solo

With the arrival of the film’s first teaser on Super Bowl Sunday and a full trailer the day after, we are at long last able to get some sense of what to expect from ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’. And frankly, it’s more than a little overdue. No, that’s not (just) me being an impatient fan. The simple fact is that there has often seemed to be a cloud hanging over the production, from rumors that an acting coach was hired for star Alden Ehrenreich to the high profile dismissal of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (following creative clashes with both the film’s writers and Lucasfilm generally) and their subsequent replacement with Ron Howard.

While it’s understandable that Lucasfilm would prefer to avoid overshadowing their promotion of ‘The Last Jedi’, the simple fact is that releasing a teaser or any substantive information about the film’s plot and/or characters (as opposed to leaving fans to piece together educated guesses based on Lego sets) would have gone a long way toward demonstrating the studio’s confidence in a film that clearly needs it.

But now that the trailer has arrived and the film’s marketing push is finally off, we’re finally getting a more specific sense of the film’s plot, which the teaser and trailer make clear will include Han’s time in the Imperial military, his first meetings with Chewbacca and Lando, and his early ventures into the criminal underworld, among other things.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Kathleen Kennedy describes ‘Solo’ as “a heist, gunslinger type movie,” and as president of Lucasfilm, she’s certainly in a position to know! By way of example, she cites the train seen in the trailer. That train is called the Conveyex and as you may have guessed, Han has to steal something it’s carrying. In this particular case, the heist seems to be an initiation of sorts .Kennedy adds:

“He might be a little more immature, he may be a little less experienced, and he may hone his cynicism over time, but he’s very wary. He needs to gain the respect of the people he interacts with, even if they’re the lowest of the low.”

Rather than elucidating specific plot beats, Kennedy’s comments offer fans a sense of Han’s arc through the course of the film. We’ve known for a while that it would show Han becoming the man he is when Luke and Obi-Wan meet him in Mos Eisley (that’s sort of the point of this sort of prequel story, after all), but now we have a clearer idea of what shape that arc will take.

Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on ‘Solo’ and other upcoming ‘Star Wars’ movies as it becomes available!

‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ is currently scheduled for release on May 25, 2018. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Joonas Suotamo.