Solo: A Star Wars Story

Solo: A Star Wars Story, or simply Solo, is an upcoming American space Western film centered on Han Solo, a character from the Star Wars franchise. The film is directed by Ron Howard and is produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan, and will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film will be the second Star Wars anthology film, following the 2016 film Rogue One. A stand-alone installment set prior to the events of A New Hope, it explores the adventures of a young Han Solo and Chewbacca, including meeting Lando Calrissian. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Solo, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany.

Principal photography began in January 2017 at Pinewood Studios, under the direction of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. The pair left the project in June 2017 after reportedly being fired over "creative differences" with Lucasfilm, and Howard took over directing duties. The film will have its world premiere in Los Angeles on May 10, 2018 and also screen on May 15 at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, before being released in the United States May 25, 2018, in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D.
Cast
Main articles: List of Star Wars characters and List of Star Wars cast members
Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo:
A cynical smuggler.[10][11] When asked how Solo differs from the Solo of latter Star Wars films, Ehrenreich stated, "I think the main thing that's different is that the Han we meet in this film is more of an idealist. He has certain dreams that he follows, and we watch how it affects him as those dreams meet new realities – realities that are harder and more challenging than he'd expected."[12] The original Han Solo actor, Harrison Ford, met with Ehrenreich, giving him some insight and words of advice.[13]
Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett:
A criminal and Han's mentor.[14][15][16] The character of Beckett was based on Long John Silver from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.[17]
Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra:
Describing her character, Clarke said: "She has a couple of guises, but essentially she is just fighting to stay alive. If you've got a really glamorous lady in a really sordid environment, you kind of know the glamor is hiding a few rough roads."[12] With regard to her character's relationship with Solo, Clarke offered that "They grew up as comrades, essentially. They grew up as pals, as partners in crime. There is obviously the romantic side of things. But they grew up together. So they were kids together."[18][19][20]
Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian:
A smuggler on the rise in the galaxy's underworld.[21] The original Lando actor, Billy Dee Williams, met with him, giving him some insight and words of advice.[22]
Thandie Newton as Val[6][16]
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37: Lando's droid companion.[23][16]
Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca: Han's Wookiee sidekick and best friend, who also serves as his first mate.[6]
Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos:
A crime lord.[16] Michael K. Williams had originally been cast,[24] but he was removed from the final film after being unable to return to set during the film's reshoots.[25] Bettany was cast in his place, with the character being reworked from a motion-capture alien (described by Williams as half-mountain lion, half-human)[26] to a scarred human.[27]
Jon Favreau will provide the voice for Rio Durant, "a very cool and important alien character."[28][29] Screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan and first assistant director Toby Hefferman portray Tag Greenley and Bink Otauna, respectively, two characters that first appeared in the Star Wars comics published by Dark Horse Comics.[30] Ian Kenny,[31] Warwick Davis[32] and Clint Howard are also cast in undisclosed roles.[33]

         Production
          Development

Before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, George Lucas had already started development on a film about a young Han Solo, and he had hired Star Wars veteran script writer Lawrence Kasdan to write the screenplay. However, when Kasdan left to help finish the script for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he left his son Jonathan Kasdan, who had been unofficially helping him, in charge of finishing the script for Solo until his return.[34]

In February 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed the development of two Star Wars standalone films, each individually written by Kasdan and Simon Kinberg.[35] Shortly thereafter, it was reported that Disney was working on two films featuring Solo and Boba Fett.[36] Disney CFO Jay Rasulo described the standalone films as origin stories.[37] Kathleen Kennedy explained that the standalone films would not crossover with the films of the sequel trilogy:

"George [Lucas] was so clear as to how that works. The canon that he created was the Star Wars saga. Right now, Episode VII falls within that canon. The spin-off movies, or we may come up with some other way to call those films, they exist within that vast universe that he created. There is no attempt being made to carry characters (from the standalone films) in and out of the saga episodes. Consequently, from the creative standpoint, it's a roadmap that George made pretty clear."[38]

In April 2015, Lucasfilm and Kennedy announced that the standalone films would be referred to as the Star Wars Anthology series.[39][40]

In July 2015, Lucasfilm announced that an Anthology film, focusing "on how [a] young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley",[41] would be released on May 25, 2018. The project was to be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a script by Lawrence Kasdan and Jonathan Kasdan. Kennedy would serve as a producer on the film, with Lawrence Kasdan and Jason McGatlin executive producers;[1] Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel also produce.[6] The Han Solo project was separate from a film that was originally being developed by Josh Trank, which was pushed back to an unconfirmed date.[42] Solo's friend, the Wookiee, Chewbacca, would also appear in the film.[43][44] In May 2016, Lawrence Kasdan stated that filming would start in January 2017.[45]

Casting

Donald Glover portrays Lando Calrissian in the film.
In January 2016, a shortlist of actors was revealed for the role of young Han Solo, including Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, Emory Cohen and Blake Jenner.[46] In March 2016, it was reported that Alden Ehrenreich, Reynor and Taron Egerton were on a shortlist of actors considered for the young Han Solo role.[47] In May 2016, Ehrenreich was reported to have been cast as the young Han Solo,[10] and was revealed in the role at Star Wars Celebration: Celebration Europe III two months later.[11] Miller called casting the role one of "the hardest casting challenges of all time" adding they "saw over 3,000 people for the part".[48]

By the following October, Tessa Thompson, Naomi Scott, Zoë Kravitz, Emilia Clarke, Kiersey Clemons, Jessica Henwick and Adria Arjona were being considered for the female lead,[49][50] while Donald Glover was being considered to play a young Lando Calrissian.[49] Glover was confirmed for Calrissian shortly after,[21] with Clarke cast as the female lead the following month.[51][50]

In early January 2017, Woody Harrelson was revealed to be in negotiations to portray Han Solo's mentor,[52] and was confirmed to be appearing in the film shortly after.[14] Christian Bale had previously been in discussions for the role.[53] A subsequent interview with Harrelson bolstered speculation that he may be specifically playing Star Wars Legends character Garris Shrike,[54][55] but Harrelson revealed the character's name as Beckett in March 2017.[15] In February 2017, Phoebe Waller-Bridge joined the cast in an undisclosed role, said to be "a CGI-driven performance" similar to Alan Tudyk in Rogue One as the droid K-2SO.[23] Additionally, it was reported that Thandie Newton was in negotiations to star in the film.[56] Waller-Bridge and Newton were confirmed as being cast by the end of February, alongside the announcement that Joonas Suotamo would appear as Chewbacca, reprising the role from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi that he shared with original Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew.[6] Michael K. Williams entered talks to join the film in early March 2017,[57] and was confirmed shortly after,[24] portraying a half-human, half-animal creature.[25] By the end of the month, Ian Kenny had joined the cast.[31] Warwick Davis was confirmed as part of the cast by the end of July 2017.[32]

Filming
Filming began on January 30, 2017,[58] at Pinewood Studios,[48] under the working title Star Wars: Red Cup.[58] By February 10, the film had spent $54.5 million on production.[59] Lucasfilm announced that principal photography started on February 20, 2017.[6] Bradford Young serves as the cinematographer for the film.[60] In May 2017, filming moved to the Canary Islands, and Lucasfilm replaced editor Chris Dickens with Pietro Scalia. Lucasfilm also hired an acting coach for Ehrenreich, as they were unhappy with his performance up to that point.[7]

On June 20, 2017, citing "creative differences", Lucasfilm and Lord and Miller jointly announced their intent to part ways, with a new director "to be announced soon".[2][61] It was reported that the directors were fired after Kennedy and Kasdan disagreed with their shooting style;[3][62] Lord and Miller believed they were hired to make a comedy film, while Lucasfilm was looking for the duo to add "a comedic touch" to the space fantasy. Lucasfilm also felt that the directors were encouraging too much improvisation from the actors, which was believed to be "shifting the story off-course" from the Kasdans' script.[63] To appease Kasdan, who was unhappy with scenes not being filmed "word for word... Lord and Miller would do several takes exactly as written and then shoot additional takes."[7] Lord and Miller refused to compromise on the way to approach certain scenes, such as filming a scene from fewer angles than what Lucasfilm was expecting reducing the options available in editing, leading to a strained relationship with Lucasfilm.[63][7] The duo were also unhappy when Kasdan was brought to the London set, feeling he became a "shadow director".[7] The decision to remove Lord and Miller from the project was made after a short hiatus in filming taken to review the footage. Additional weeks of filming had been planned.[3]

It was reported that Star Wars creator George Lucas's close friend Ron Howard, who previously had turned down an offer from Lucas himself to direct Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,[64] was a frontrunner to step in as director. Joe Johnston and Kasdan were also being considered, though Directors Guild of America rules state that a replacement for a director may not be someone already involved in the production.[62][65] Two days later, it was announced that Howard would take over directing duties for the remaining three-and-a-half weeks of scheduled principal photography as well as the scheduled five weeks of reshoots.[4][66] On being hired, Howard wrote, "I'm beyond grateful to add my voice to the Star Wars Universe... I hope to honor the great work already done & help deliver on the promise of a Han Solo film."[67] Howard was expected to arrive in London on June 26 to complete filming.[7] During the film's reshoots, actor Michael K. Williams was unable to return to the production, due to a schedule conflict with filming The Red Sea Diving Resort, resulting in his part being cut. Williams stated the reshoots for his character were "to match the new direction which the producers wanted Ron to carry the film in", and that he would not have been available again until November 2017, and the production did not want to wait for his availability in order to still be able to release in May 2018.[25]

Lucas, a friend and mentor of Howard due to previous collaborations, made a surprise visit to the set to encourage his friend on his first day shooting. While originally meant as a short meeting, Lucas ended up spending the whole day with the crew. While Lucas did not mean to interfere, at some point he forgot and asked "Why doesn't Han just do this?" Upon hearing Lucas' suggestion, Howard decided to film it and include it in the film.[68] On October 17, 2017, Howard announced that principal photography had been completed; he also revealed the official title of the film as Solo: A Star Wars Story.[69]

In March 2018, it was announced that the original directors Lord and Miller will receive executive producer credits on the film.[5]

Post Production was wrapped on April 22, 2018.[70]

Music
In July 2017, John Powell was announced as the main composer of the film's score.[71] Longtime Star Wars composer John Williams will contribute the Han Solo theme for the film.[72]

Release
Solo: A Star Wars Story will have its world premiere on May 10, 2018 in Los Angeles,[73] and screen on May 15, 2018 at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.[74] The film is set to debut in selected countries from May, 23 and will have its US and worldwide release on May 25, 2018, the 41st anniversary of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in which Harrison Ford first appeared as Han Solo. Despite the firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in June 2017, Lucasfilm kept the film on schedule for its intended release date.[1][2]

Marketing
A "sneak peek" TV spot was released during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018.[75] It became the most popular Super Bowl trailer on YouTube. with 8 million views. It also had 5.9 million views on Facebook.[76]

The first official teaser trailer was released on February 5, 2018. Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the trailer as "dull", and compared it negatively to the look of Rogue One, opining that the visuals "should be the hive of scum and villainy of the Cantina of the very first movie, filled with colorful aliens and things happening all over the place. That busyness, the sense of danger and hustle, feels appropriate for Solo in a way that what's on show in this first trailer simply doesn't." He also noted that several plot elements presented in the trailer were reminiscent of The Han Solo Trilogy, a series of novels published in 1997 and 1998.[77]

In early March 2018, French artist Hachim Bahous asserted that Disney had plagiarized a series of album covers he designed for Sony Music's label Legacy Recordings in France with character posters for the film. Disney stated they were investigating the alleged plagiarism and that the Solo posters had been produced by an outside vendor.[78]

In the weeks leading up to the film, EA Capital Games announced that new characters based on the film will eventually be collectible and playable in the mobile game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, including a younger Han Solo and Chewbacca as they appeared in the film.[79]

Box office projections
Initial projections three weeks before its release have the film grossing around $170 million over its four-day Memorial Day opening weekend. Deadline Hollywood noted that it was tracking higher than the previous Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One (which debuted to $155 million), and had more interest from audiences than the likes of fellow blockbusters Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.[80] After its first day of pre-sales, Fandango announced the film was the second-best seller of advance tickets in 2018, after Avengers: Infinity War.[81]