Last night during the Super Bowl, a number of new trailers dropped for popular franchises throughout the course of the big game. Perhaps the most surprising/anticipated one was for the upcoming installment to the Star Wars Anthology series, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
For those living under a rock, Solo is, of course, the obligatory origin story for fan favorite smuggler, Han Solo. No, Harrison Ford isn’t returning to reprise his role. Those duties have been handed to Alden Ehrenreich. The plot follows Solo as he delves into a criminal underworld while also meeting his future co-pilot, Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and friend, Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), ahead of his involvement with the rebellion.
As we’ve questioned in the past on this site, it’s still safe to wonder if these films are the least bit necessary. This is especially the case if Disney and Lucasfilm are going to start pumping out origin stories for characters that are already popular. In other entertainment mediums, there have been countless other stories told that provide plenty of opportunities to branch out from the original characters. Even Disney’s first go-round with the anthology film, Rogue One, provided a semi-new story with some different characters. If this is the route they’re choosing to go, what’s next? Obi-Wan Kenobi’s childhood? Yoda’s adolescent years? How about a film that covers Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s courtship before getting Luke Skywalker dumped on them?
Obviously, we’re being facetious here but you get the picture. If Disney wants to expand the Star Wars universe then, simply, expand the Star Wars universe. These planned Anthology films aren’t necessarily doing that. They’re just adding more backstory to events and characters that we didn’t really need additional backstory for. Regardless, in terms of the trailer, it looks like what you’d expect from it. It’s hard to say that anything about this film is going to blow people away. It doesn’t really seem like there are any surprises they could pull. The cast looks pretty good with Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, and Paul Bettany joining the aforementioned talent. Ron Howard is even manning the director’s chair for this film. If nothing else, Solo: A Star Wars Story should come off as competent.
The film is set for release on May 25th. Check out the first teaser and comment below.
