Since the resurrection of the Star Wars movie franchise, thanks to Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, original creator George Lucas has left the saga behind and hasn’t directed any of the modern pics set in that galaxy far, far away. However, he’s still very welcome on set and we’ve heard stories about him visiting on previous projects, as well as having good things to say about the likes of Rogue One and The Last Jedi.
For Solo: A Star Wars Story, though, Lucas actually helped improve a scene in a way that was perfect for the character of Han Solo. Director Ron Howard’s previously teased this suggestion made by his old friend before, but he only recently confirmed what the exact advice from Lucas was in an interview with Variety.
Howard revealed that it occurred during filming of a scene when – minor spoiler alert – Han and Qi’ra are flirting in Lando’s closet on the Millennium Falcon. As things get steamy between them, Han removes a cape Qi’ra was trying on. In the original version of this scene, the rogue politely hung the cape back up. Lucas’ small but significant change, though, was that Han wouldn’t bother with that.
“He said, ‘You know, Han wouldn’t bother to hang it up.’ And then he sort of did it. George became Han Solo for a second. The body language was there and the attitude. Not only was it a nice accent on the scene, but it was also a reminder that George created this character and really understood him. He was so reluctant [to offer his opinion], and yet the choice was so right that it was fun to use it.”
Even if you think Lucas mishandled the prequels – which he did – this little moment proves that he knows the characters he originally brought to life inside out. As Howard says, he even knew how Han would move during the sequence. We can imagine that Lucas was keen for his friend to get Solo right, too as he’d previously been interested in developing his own prequel movie based on the scruffy-looking nerf herder before Lucasfilm was sold.