Han Solo, the rakish Millennium Falcon pilot made famous by Hollywood icon Harrison Ford in the Star Wars original trilogy and played again by Alden Ehrenreich in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), is a fan-favorite in the Star Wars community.
From the moment audiences met Ford’s Solo in the Mos Eisley cantina in 1977 — he did shoot first, by the way (even Mark Hamill says so) — George Lucas’s “scruffy nerfherder” has been much more than a smuggler. He’s Hamill’s Luke Skywalker’s unwitting protector and the love of Princess Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) life.
He’s also Ben Solo’s (Adam Driver) father — and murder victim, but that’s a story for another time.
Now, we might get a chance to see more of Solo’s life in the days between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977).
In the Star Wars timeline, we don’t know a lot about what young Han Solo was doing after Solo: A Star Wars Story (except that he was heading to Tatooine to do some business with Jabba the Hutt)Â — and Lucasfilm is setting up some future Star Wars shows to give us a glimpse of exactly what went down, but probably not how you’re expecting.
Ever since Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni announced their upcoming spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett, in an epic The Mandalorian Season 2 finale post-credits scene, fans have been hoping for a Han Solo cameo as Temuera Morrison’s bounty hunter navigates the criminal underworld on Tatooine.
As fun as it would be to see a post-Return of the Jedi (1983), pre-The Force Awakens (2015) Solo, it actually seems even more likely that we’ll see a Solo cameo in Deborah Chow’s upcomingObi-Wan Kenobi special event series.
The show is set to follow Ewan McGregor (Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) about ten years after Revenge of the Sith — and the execution of Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66. This puts the timeline very close to the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
First, we need to address the timeline. In Solo, there’s a three-year span during which Han found himself fighting for the Galactic Empire after he and Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) were separated on Correlia. The majority of the prequel film — meeting Wookiee bestie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) and hooking up with Tobias Beckett’s (Woody Harrelson) band of rogues, for example — occurs in 10 BBY.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, on the other hand, is expected to occur in 11 BBY, though it is important to note that this timeline could have slightly shifted now that production is actually underway.
In 11 BBY, it’s possible that our favorite future Rebel General was still working for the Empire. But, even if this is the case, it’s still likely that we’ll see Han in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
As Inverse pointed out, there are some very good reasons why:
First, the Empire surely has a presence on Tatooine, even if it’s a small one. Han’s battalion could easily show-up on Tatooine in an episode of the Obi-Wan show, and the two could be like ships passing in the night…[and] if enough time passes within the Obi-Wan series and 11BBY edges closer to 10BBY, then the ending of Solo could sync-up with Old Ben. After all, the ending of Solo had Chewbacca and Han headed to Tatooine, and we know who lives there…
We also know that — at least at one point — Ehrenreich was contracted for three Solo films. Since we know from director Ron Howard that this trilogy isn’t happening (no matter how much fans seem to want it to), a series could be a great way for Ehrenreich to fulfill his contractual agreement with Disney and Lucasfilm.
Could this also mean that there’s a possibility of a young Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) cameo in the Star Wars universe in the near future, even before the Lando special event series releases? Only time will tell.
What do you think? Will we see Han Solo appear in Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Comments Off on Han Solo Must Return in Live-Action (But Not Where You Think)
Credit: Lucasfilm
