Following Disney's confirmation of a Han Solo spinoff movie, Star Wars fans have had two two major questions dangling in front of them: who is Disney going to get to play the young smuggler, and how far back are they going to go? One of those questions has been answered franchise stalwart and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.
Speaking alongside director J.J. Abrams at a Q&A about The Force Awakens after a screening for the Directors Guild of America, Kasdan — co-writer of The Force Awakens, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and, of course, the upcoming Han Solo spinoff — explained not only what drew him to the Anthology film, but when the story will take place.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to be involved. And I was a little relieved when they said Michael Arndt had been hired to write 'Episode VII,' because whoever writes that episode, I don’t know what you do with it. But they said, ‘Here are these other stories we’d like to do.’ And the one that caught my attention was a young Han Solo because that’s my favorite character,” he explained.
Kasdan also briefly touched upon the story, assuring fans it won't be an origins story.
"It will not be here’s where he was born and this is how he was raised," Kasdan said. "I think what it will be is, what was he like 10 years earlier, maybe a little earlier, you’ll get a glimpse. But Kurosawa once said the heroes are the ones that are still changing and the villains are locked and petrified into what they are. And Harrison embodies in 'Force Awakens' someone who is still not settled on who he is."
His description echoes that of what he shared with the LA Times last month, suggesting the new Solo will be "in his early 20s," and answer questions like "What was he like before he hardened up? Before he had some setbacks? Before he put on this cynical coat? What got him there?"
Officially, Lucasfilm originally explained the story of the Anthology film "focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, theif, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina on Mos Eisley."
As for who Disney will get to fill those big boots, well, that's the other question that has Ford fans anxious.
