Now that Star Wars: The Last Jedi is moving into the rearview mirror, Disney and Lucasfilm are at last pushing the promotional campaign for Solo: A Star Wars Story into gear. The upcoming prequel starring Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo has been kept tightly under wraps so far, with only the odd set photo posted on director Ron Howard’s social media giving us any clue as to the nature of the movie.
But that’s about to change, as the first official synopsis for Solo has now dropped. The short outline keeps things pretty vague, of course, but teases the scruffy-looking nerf herder encountering some other iconic characters from the Star Wars franchise.
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Anyone who’s been following Solo will know that the inclusion of Chewie and Lando is nothing new. Joonas Suotamo will reprise his role as Han’s fuzz-ball best friend in the movie, after he first took over from Peter Mayhew in The Last Jedi, and Donald Glover is replacing Billy Dee Williams as loveable con man Calrissian, the original owner of the Millennium Falcon. Still, it’s nice to get some kind of official synopsis and we’re looking forward to embarking on this “dark and dangerous” adventure.
That being said, Lucasfilm have some hard work ahead of them in righting the bad publicity that’s surrounded the pic since its inception. As soon as Solo was announced, many fans weren’t keen on the idea of replacing Harrison Ford. Things then got worse when original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired and rumours stated that Ehrenreich wasn’t cutting it as a replacement for Ford.
If what comes out in the next few months can impress viewers, though, then maybe the public reaction to Solo will be changed. Fingers crossed we get a teaser trailer of some sort sooner rather than later.
Solo: A Star Wars Story lands in cinemas on May 25th.