You might have heard that actor/director Jon Favreau has signed up to helm the first ever Star Wars live-action TV series for Lucasfilm and Disney. Before that arrives, though, he’ll get a test drive in that galaxy far, far away with a cameo role in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Iron Man actor previously pointed out that he’ll be playing a four-armed monkey-like alien in the upcoming prequel, a character who was first glanced in action in the film’s teaser trailer.
Now, Favreau has shared a piece of merchandise featuring the creature, which finally gives us a name to work with. The filmmaker took to his Twitter account to post a photo of a new Hot Wheels toy based on Solo which unveils the monkey alien’s name as Rio Durant. The vehicle he’s driving, meanwhile, is an Imperial AT-Hauler. This was seen flying through the snowy mountainous landscape in one of the trailers, leading us to believe that Rio’s an expert pilot.
Check it out for yourself below:
Thanks to what we’ve seen of Rio in the previews so far and from what we can gather about his ace pilot skills, it’s likely that the character will be involved with the interplanetary smuggling ring that Woody Harrelson’s Tobias Beckett will welcome Alden Ehrenreich’s rookie Han Solo into. Also, chalk this up as speculation, but he looks like he could become the Star Wars version of Marvel’s Rocket Raccoon, too.
Either way, Disney will no doubt be confident in their appointment of Favreau to that galaxy far, far away. He’s brought them much success before in the form of the 2016 Jungle Book live-action reboot and is also hoping to strike gold again with his similar remake of The Lion King, coming in 2019.
Solo: A Star Wars Story, meanwhile, arrives in cinemas on May 25th.