Yahoo Movies Han Solo's new origin is surprisingly familiar
The first Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer is here, and it offers us a brief and tantalising look into the young Han Solo's adventures.
The teaser for Ron Howard's film – which stars Alden Ehrenreich in Harrison Ford's iconic role – reveals a little about our hero's origin... and it turns out we've heard it before.
Ever since Disney rendered all the Star Wars stories told outside of the films – including novels, video games, comics and much more – as non-canon, we haven't known much about the official origin of the galaxy's most (in)famous smuggler.
But if we peer back into the now-defunct 'Star Wars Legends' (formerly known as the 'Extended Universe'), there are some similarities to his old origin and what we see in the trailer:
• "I've been running scams on the streets since I was ten," says Ehrenreich's Solo in the trailer. In Legends continuity, he spent his early life as an orphan on the planet Corellia, and became involved in organised crime under the tutelage of a bounty hunter called Garris Shrike (perhaps paralleled by Woody Harrelson's Tobias Beckett in the movie).
• "I was kicked out of the flight academy for having a mind of my own." In Legends, Han trained as a pilot for the Empire. In this version he did graduate, but left the military after protecting the captured Chewbacca from his commander.
• We see Han and Qi'Ra (played by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke) tearing through the streets in a speeder. In Legends, when he wasn't swindling people, Han was a 'swoop racer' – a variation on podracing but with less Jake Lloyd.
• "I might be the only person who knows what you really are," says Qi'Ra. We really hope this isn't the case, but could she be referring to his Legends backstory as the descent of Corellian royalty? Because that would be lame and quite counter to the idea that (like Rey in The Last Jedi) you don't have to be born into a fancy family to be important.
Howard (and his predecessors) probably won't be following those old stories to the letter, but the trailer does indicate that they are taking inspiration from what has come before. Nor is it the first time for the new Star Wars movies to do so, such as the case of Luke Skywalker's two evil nephews.
Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo and Paul Bettany will also feature in the film.
Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released on May 25.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
You Might Also Like
