I was against a young Han Solo film with only a few exceptions, but Lucasfilm had to go and bring in one of those exceptions: Chris Miller and Phil Lord directing. The filmmaking duo, who have proved time and again their ability to turn bad ideas into great movies, signed on to helm a Star Wars Anthology about a young Han Solo this past July, but details have been next to non-existent. All we know is that Lord and Miller will direct from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and his son Jon Kasdan (In the Land of Women), and that the logline is:

The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley.

But how young? And what specifically about Solo will they focus on? Kasdan the elder and producer Kathleen Kennedy provided some new details to EW in a recent interview.

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Image via Lucasfilm

If you’re worried about a repeat of the problems the series had with young Anakin Skywalker and Boba Fett, you can breath a sigh of relief. You won’t see him as a little kid

“He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s,” Kennedy says. “We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”


Put on your casting caps everyone! Is there currently an actor in that age range who screams “Young Harrison Ford”? Keep in mind that Ford didn’t even want to do the role, and that the quality of his performance is due in part to his reluctance.

More important than his age, however, is the approach they’re planning to take to the overall film. Aside from wrestling with how much of Solo’s past should remain a mystery, Kennedy says “I think the key here is that we are identifying an event or events in Han Solo’s life that gives you some idea of who he is and why he is the character we have all known to love.” She believes that what makes him unique is that he’s a wise-ass skeptic in a serious universe, so how did he become that way?

The script is still in development, but EW says “fans should expect something along the lines of an adventure comedy. Kennedy explains, “Han Solo is the character inside Star Wars that everybody knows has a wit and sense of humor. So that’s what this should be.”

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Image via Lucasfilm

As far as other characters who could appear in the Han Solo film, EW says that Chewie, Lando, Jabba, Greedo, and characters from the new canon comics (like Han’s wife) could appear, but offered no confirmation. Personally, I think Chewie is all you need since their friendship is key to the character. Everyone else starts filling in those gaps that don’t need to be filled in and could reek of fan service like the prequel trilogies.

This film will definitely be Lord and Miller’s toughest assignment yet, but at least as an adventure comedy featuring a (hopefully) likable young, non-kid actor, this could be promising. At the very least, I don’t have a bad feeling about it. At least not yet.


The untitled Star Wars Anthology film opens May 25, 2018.

Also, feel free to peruse our recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens content below:

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Image via Lucasfilm