After months and months of radio silence, Lucasfilm has finally blown the lid open on Solo: A Star Wars Story. It all began with a quick teaser during the Super Bowl, which was then followed by the full thing before Entertainment Weekly brought us even more goodies earlier today, as the outlet has elected Ron Howard’s spinoff to take the cover of its most recent issue. That means new photos, plot details and more have all trickled out onto the web, giving us a ton to feast on.
But even still, many people remain hesitant about Solo: A Star Wars Story, either worried that its troubled production will result in an unsalvageable mess or simply uninterested in seeing someone other than Harrison Ford play Han Solo. One person who’s not feeling any of that, however, is Mark Hamill. Yes, Luke Skywalker himself is of course keeping right up to date with everything that emerges from the Solo camp and seems to be very excited about it.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, the actor said that he can’t wait to see the Anthology film:
“I don’t know what anybody’s complaining about. The trailer makes you want to see the movie and I’m dying to see it, so it worked.”
Continuing on, he spoke to the divisive reaction that Solo has seen recently, saying:
“This is the only franchise where you go on Twitter and they say, ‘If such and such happens, I am so out! It surprises me, but, look, you can’t please everybody. You just have to try and make the best story you can. I was sort of taken aback by it, but who knows?! Not everybody likes broccoli. Some people like carrots or Brussels sprouts better, you know, that’s just the way life is.”
While Hamill probably wouldn’t openly bash the franchise that defined his career, he usually is fairly candid in his interviews and there’s no reason to doubt that he’s anything but pumped to head into theaters to see Solo: A Star Wars Story. Let’s just hope he doesn’t find himself disappointed with the end product. After all, given the divisive response to The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm needs this one to be a hit with the fanbase.
Thankfully, they’ve assembled quite the cast to help ensure that, as aside from Alden Ehrenreich as the titular hero, they’ve also got Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) on board to play Qi’ra. Elsewhere, we have Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and his droid sidekick L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), along with Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), blaster-toting Val (Thandie Newton), and crime boss Dryden Vos, the latter of whom will be played by Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War), who assumes the role once earmarked for Michael K. Williams.
With Solo: A Star Wars Story now adorning the cover, Entertainment Weekly will likely roll out more scraps of intel over the coming days. And you can bet that we’ll be keeping a close eye on Ron Howard’s anthology flick as it begins to coalesce, particularly now that Disney is pushing ahead with a fifth Star Wars trilogy (Rian Johnson is in charge of the fourth) and multiple TV series set in that famous, distant galaxy.