Solo: It's the nature of the business It's the smuggler's blues

From Indie Wire

This summer’s blockbuster movie-going season will get a galaxy-sized injection of origin story when Ron Howard’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” arrives in May, promising to fill in all sorts of backstory-centric questions regarding lovable rogue Han Solo (played here by Alden Ehrenreich). The film has notably taken its time rolling out marketing — last night’s Super Bowl spot was the first official footage to be released, followed quickly by a much longer teaser that expanded upon some of the more intriguing elements of the film.

So what was a young Han Solo like? And how did he become the beloved scoundrel who has for so long been one of the best parts of the “Star Wars” mythos? “Solo” has some ideas, and not all of them appear to hinge on the introduction of other classic characters (though Chewie and Lando are both very much here) and locales (can you count the Millennium Falcon as a single locale?).



The feature has, of course, not been without its controversy. When original directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord were hired to helm the film, it was expected that they’d bring their signature humor and free-wheeling style to “Solo,” an idea that proved out in the worst possible way: they unexpectedly left the project in June, with weeks of production still left.

Howard was announced as the new director of the Han Solo film in late July. “I’m beyond grateful to add my voice to the Star Wars Universe after being a fan since 5/25/77,” he wrote at the time. “I hope to honor the great work already done & help deliver on the promise of a Han Solo film.” In October, he shared on Twitter that the production had finally wrapped.

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