Solo. That’s the title of the upcoming Star Wars Story spinoff that follows the adventures of a young Han Solo, played by Alden Ehrenreich. After months of speculation, a change in directors, and reshoots, Ron Howard finally revealed the official title of the project — formerly operating under the working title “Red Cup” — on his Twitter account today in a special message to fans.
The upcoming Han Solo spinoff would be remiss if it didn’t address the most famous of our dear smuggler’s exploits: that time he and the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
The Star Wars universe has always been a pretty great place for women (unless you’re a director, that is), so why is it that we haven’t yet seen a female droid in as significant a capacity as C-3P0 or R2-D2, or scene-stealer BB-8? There have been female droids in the canon, but usually that’s not revealed until after the fact, and no woman has ever voiced a major speaking role for a robot. With the new Han Solo prequel/spinoff, that’s about to change.
Woody Harrelson seems to have found himself a niche. After mentoring Katniss Everdeen to greatness in The Hunger Games, the actor is poised to go guru again for the Star Wars young Han Solo spinoff movie.
The shift from summer to Christmas for The Force Awakens came as a bit of a shock to Star Wars fans, who were so used to seeing the earlier installments of the first two trilogies hit theaters in the warmer months. Summer releases for Star Wars movies had become something of an unspoken tradition, so the holiday release had some feeling a little perturbed. Disney and Lucasfilm sure weren’t, though, as The Force Awakens raked in that holiday box office cash, topping every Star Wars movie before it in less than twelve parsecs. Now, a rumor has surfaced that the Han Solo spinoff, which has so far been scheduled for May 2018, might get bumped forward to December.