Something that Kellvin and others have long predicted, that makes me groan, is that the young Han Solo movie will focus on how our favorite scoundrel won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian. I’ll reiterate later why the thought of that makes me cringe, but for now let me share why it would appear that this theory is actually true.
A very trusted writer, who works for the extremely reputable outlet The Hollywood Reporter, took to twitter to reveal what his sources have told him about the Young Han Solo movie:
A couple of sources tell me the #HanSolo spin-off will tell how Lando Calrissien lost the Millennium Falcon to Han.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) October 21, 2016
“A couple of sources tell me the #HanSolo spin-off will tell how Lando Calrissien [sic] lost the Millennium Falcon to Han,” tweeted to his followers. Rumors about this being a plot point have run rampant ever since it was revealed that Lando would factor into the movie.
On Friday, we learned that it will be Donald Glover who will play Lando opposite Alden Ehrenreich’s Han. So, presumably, we’re going to get to experience what their early dynamic was like, and how the whole Falcon transaction went down.
This sort of stuff drives me nuts. When it was announced way back when that LucasFilm was going to start making standalone anthology films that were set in the Star Wars universe, I stood up and cheered. To me, it signaled that we would get to explore new ground. In my mind, George Lucas created an amazing sandbox where future writers and filmmakers could let their imagination run wild and tell original stories. But so far we have Rogue One: A Star Wars Story– a pseudo prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope, and now we have this Han Solo movie, which is going to cover territory that anyone who’s seen Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is already quite familiar with.
One of the great things about the Cloud City sequences in Empire Strikes Back was the wild card that Lando represented. The mysterious past he had with Han, and their unique dynamic- the way it was hard to tell if they were truly friends or actual rivals- made that section of the movie fun, intriguing, and unpredictable. We also know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Han won the Millennium Falcon from Lando. So the idea of a film that’s going to spoon feed us more information than we need, and retroactively sap some of the mystery from Empire Strikes Back, has zero appeal to me.
In my heart of hearts, if they really wanted to tell a Young Han Solo story, I would’ve hired an actor that could play him as a 17/18 year old rebel without a cause, and told the story of how he became a smuggler, and what led him to his dealings in the underworld; An exploration of a young man that wants to be good, yet is just so good at being bad. Something akin to a hybrid between The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Better Call Saul, would’ve been amazing.
Needless to say, if this rumor ends up being true, I’m not excited.