One of the more ambitious ideas that Disney has implemented since purchasing LucasFilm from George Lucas is the idea of standalone spinoffs within the Star Wars universe that Lucas created. With the overriding philosophy being that Lucas created a huge canvas with his galaxy far, far away- a canvas that can be used to tell all kinds of stories- they’re set to expand on the Star Wars mythos in a way that goes beyond the Skywalker saga. 

So far, we’ve got Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and an as-yet-untitled spinoff that centers on a young Han Solo on the way. 

Jammer and I have discussed several times on the LOS FANBOYS Podcast how these first two spinoffs don’t veer far enough away from the Skywalker saga for our liking. But, still, it does at least seem like they’re going to be exploring new tones and sub-genres.

By all accounts, Rogue One is going to be more of a gritty war movie. It’s going to put very little emphasis on mystical Jedi elements, and tell a far more grounded story from the trenches of the first days of the war between the Rebellion and the Empire. 

But what about the Han Solo movie? We know it’s a ways off, and so we’ve only had a few crumbs here and there to speculate about. But LucasFilm Chief Kathleen Kennedy just pulled back the curtain a bit to reveal the genre and tone that they’ll be exploring with Han Solo.

“This moves closer to a heist or Western type feel,” Kennedy told Variety. “We’ve talked about [Frederic] Remington and those primary colors that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film.“

In the past, we’ve heard these comments from longtime Star Wars concept artist Iain McCaig, about the script for this Han Solo film:

“By farthe best Star Wars script, and one of the best scripts period, that I have ever read. I laughed, I cried, I did all the things you should do when reading a good script. You’re in for a treat.”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams also chimed in on this discussion with Variety. On the way the spinoffs hope to explore territory that the main saga films can’t, Abrams said, “One of the many wonderful byproducts of the universe that George created is that nearly anything can happen within it,” Abrams said. “There are other stories that we can tell in that same transportive and transcendent spirit. Going forward, you’re going to see movies that shift tonally; Some that are grittier and tougher, and some more comedic in nature.“

So the promise of completely new experiences in the Star Wars universe still exists, and can hopefully be fulfilled once LucasFilm and Disney finish testing the waters with Rogue One and Han Solo. They seem to want to see how audiences take to these films set outside of the Skywalker saga before they get into the stuff that’s really new and different.

We shall see.

What do you think of these latest comments about Star Wars: Han Solo spinoff?

SOURCE: Variety