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| photo courtesy of heroichollywood.com |
SPOILERS FOR OTHER STAR WARS
MOVIES, OBVIOUSLY
THE BASICS
For those of you who
barely know what a Star Wars is, here’s
an intro.
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| Chewy, Han, Leia, and Luke. photo courtesy of gamespot.com |
The original Star Wars movies take place in a galaxy
ruled by the malevolent Galactic Empire,
which keeps order through intimidation and brute force. In Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, we catch up with a band of heroes—including
Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo—who
join the Rebel Alliance, a group
dedicated to fighting the Empire. A New
Hope ends with our heroes blowing up the Death Star, a weaponized space
station designed by the Empire to destroy entire planets.
Behind the surface-level
military struggle, there’s a deeper conflict going on. In the Star Wars universe, there’s this mysterious
energy called the Force, which binds
all life in the galaxy together. It’s also a source of power for those who can
tap into it: the Jedi Knights use
the light side of the Force to fight for good, and the Sith Lords use the dark side for their own selfish gain. The Emperor, and his enforcer Darth Vader (who’s also Luke’s father),
are Sith Lords in charge of the Empire. Under their supervision, all but a few
of the Jedi Knights have been wiped out.
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| Han helping the Rebels infiltrate an imperial bunker. photo courtesy of nerdist.com |
Solo: A Star Wars Story takes place before A New Hope, and it follows a younger Han Solo before he gets swept
up into the Rebellion and becomes a hero. At that time, things in the galaxy
are pretty rough: the Empire is in charge, the Rebellion is either nascent or
nonexistent, and very few of the classic Star
Wars characters are in play. As for the Force, it’s unlikely that we’ll encounter
any Jedi or Sith, because Han Solo insists that he doesn’t believe the Force exists
when he meets Luke in A New Hope.
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
Who do we already know,
and what are they up to?
HAN SOLO
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| Young Han Solo. photo courtesy of mashable.com |
Solo: A Star Wars Story finds Han
Solo (Alden Ehrenreich, previously Harrison Ford) as a young man years
before he meets up with the likes of Luke,
Leia, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. In later years he would quit his smuggling job to become
a hero of the Rebellion, help blow up two Death Stars, and eventually die at
the hands of his son (with Leia), Ben
Solo/Kylo Ren. But at the time when Solo
begins, there’s no telling what Han’s life looks like. We know that he grows up
on his homeworld of Corellia, and we know that at some point he comes into
contact with his iconic ship, the Millennium
Falcon. Apart from that, Solo is
a blank slate.
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| Boba Fett. photo courtesy of superherohype.com |
Side note: For much of the
original trilogy, Han is on the run from his old boss, the gangster Jabba the Hutt, to whom he owes quite a
bit of money. He’s eventually captured by the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett and delivered to Jabba, where
he remains until Luke and the others rescue him. It’s unlikely that Jabba or
Boba will play a prominent role in Solo,
but it is possible that they’ll be mentioned or appear briefly.
CHEWBACCA
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| Chewbacca. photo courtesy of starwars.com |
It wouldn’t be a Han
Solo story if Chewbacca (Joonas
Suotamo, previously Peter Mayhew) didn’t show up. In the original movies,
Chewbacca (a member of the alien race known as Wookiees), was Han’s faithful
friend and co-pilot; he could be found at Han’s side for most of the important moments
in Star Wars history. Not much is
known about Chewy’s early life or the origin of their friendship, apart from
the fact that Chewy owes Han a “life debt” for some unspecified event that took
place between them many years before. There’s a chance we’ll see that event in Solo.
LANDO CALRISSIAN
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| Donald Glover's Lando. photo courtesy of indiewire.com |
When we meet Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover,
previously Billy Dee Williams) in The
Empire Strikes Back, he and Han already have some kind of history. We don’t
know exactly what passed between them—other than the fact that Lando lost the Falcon to Han in a gamble—but it’s clear
that Han views him as a friendly-but-devious sort of guy. That’s why Han is so
surprised to see Lando owning and operating a respectable mining business in The Empire Strikes Back. Lando would go
on to betray Han under coercion from the Empire, but he redeemed himself by
joining the Rebellion and helping blow up the second Death Star. What we’ll
find him up to in Solo, years before
all that, is anyone’s guess.
FRESH FACES
Who’s new this time
around?
Note: There are some
conscious omissions to avoid giving away spoilers.
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| Han and Chewy with Qi'ra and Tobias. photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
The bulk of the new
characters form a group of smugglers and criminals—a group that Han &
friends will apparently join at some point in Solo. There’s Tobias Beckett
(Woody Harrelson), a criminal mentor figure, his wife Val (Thandie Newton), Han’s long-time friend Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), a self-adapting droid named L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and an
alien called Rio (Jon Favreau). Also
of importance are Dryden Vos (Paul
Bettany), a sinister crime lord/gangster, and Enfys Nest, a pirate.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
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| The mysterious Enfys Nest. photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
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