Rest easy, Star Wars fans, the upcoming young Han Solo movie will not be “changing” the famous nerf-herder’s name. A lot of information about the film saga was divulged at Star Wars Celebration over the weekend - and while the original Han Solo, Harrison Ford, attended the convention to be a part of the Star Wars 40th Anniversary panel, few details were revealed about Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s anthology movie about the early days of the space scoundrel.
One interesting tidbit did emerge, however, when Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy made a clarification regarding a Han Solo name change for the standalone movie, which Disney CEO Bob Iger alluded to when he revealed details about the project last month. In addition to saying the story would focus on Han Solo from age 18 to 24, Iger said the film would reveal how Han got his name.
In an interview with MTV, Kennedy attributes Iger’s remark to a misunderstanding. She says:
“I’m not sure that that’s entirely what Bob meant. There’s more to Han Solo’s name, but it’s not that it’s not his name. It’s obviously his name. It will always be his name (laughs).”
Kennedy’s revelation about young Han Solo’s name will no doubt cause fans to breath a collective sigh of relief. For one, it’s clearly one of the most recognized names in movie history (along with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader), so any tinkering with it – even if the character had a different name at birth before he assumed the Han Solo moniker – would have just caused confusion; and worst case scenario, changed the way fans perceive the character in all the previous Star Wars Han appeared in. Bottom line, Han Solo is just too cool of a name, and since movie characters’ names are everything, no one – not even Lucasfilm – should mess with it.
So now that we know Han will always be Han, fans can go back to getting excited about the movie again. Filming is underway with Alden Ehrenreich as Han, and the story, of course, will include the young Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), along with the galaxy’s favorite walking carpet, Chewbacca. And while no new footage or images were unveiled from the film at Star Wars Celebration, you have to believe some new young Han Solo reveals will hit full force – possibly even the title of the movie – when Disney holds its D23 convention in July.
Source: MTV
- Star Wars 8 Release Date: 2017-12-15 Han Solo Release Date: 2018-05-25