A Han Solo standalone movie? Be still our fangirl hearts

Coming soon to a theater near you: a scruffy looking nerf herder. As you may have heard (from the excited cries) there’s going to be a standalone Han Solo movie. It’s one of the planned Star Wars anthology movies, and it’s going to focus on the years before we meet Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope.

As the Disney convention, D23, starts up in Anaheim, California, we should start bracing ourselves for some sort of news on the Han front. While details about this movie are as scarce as the Tatooine desert right now, we do know a few important things about it.

It’ll be directed by the duo behind The Lego Movie

Phil Lord and Chris Miller are, shall we say, piloting the Falcon for this outing. Long-time Star Wars producer, Kathleen Kennedy explained to Entertainment Weekly that there was a reason for their hiring.

“You can imagine, given who we’ve chosen to come in and direct, it should be very entertaining and funny,” Kennedy says. “Han Solo is the character inside Star Wars that everybody knows has a wit and sense of humor. So that’s what this should be.”

Han’s going to be young

But not too young. “He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s. We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.” Or, we’re not getting a young pod-racing Anakin Skywalker, so everyone breath a sigh of relief.

So clearly this is going to be a prequel

It’ll take place before the events of A New Hope, and also before the events of the other Star Wars anthology film, Rogue One. But just how far back, no one knows. Though his actual age is never stated, Han is thought to be in his late 20s during A New Hope. So the prequel would bring him back 10-15 years.

There’s a reason we’re going to see a young Han Solo

Star Wars isn’t just going to make a Star Wars movie to make a Star Wars movie, you know? It’s gotta tell a story, and the Han Solo film will give us a true reason as to why we’re seeing Han at this point in time.  “I think the key here is that we are identifying an event or events in Han Solo’s life that gives you some idea of who he is and why he is the character we have all known to love,” Kennedy continued.

What could these events be? Oh I dunno, like, how he won the Millennium Falcon from Lando? Or how about when Han met Chewie? What about that one time he made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs? There are loads of different places the movie could go, not just limited to the backstory we know already about Han.

But, Kennedy also mentioned that they, “don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.” So maybe the Kessel Run will continue to just be a great legend in our minds.

Han Solo has NOT been cast yet

There was an amazing rumor last year that Aaron Paul might play Han. However, it was just a rumor. Also with the idea that Han will be late-teens, early 20s, Paul might already be too old for what Disney is looking for.

So clearly the only thing to do is to get a time machine, go back in time, grab Harrison Ford in his 20s, bring him to the future, have him shoot this stand-alone Star Wars movie, and then bring him back to the past so he can still film the Indiana Jones movies. Just a thought.

This will all happen sooner than we think

OK, so maybe May 25, 2018 is actually really far, far away. But we love Han, and we’re willing to wait forever (he knows).

(Image via LucasFilm and Giphy.)