UPDATE! Alden Ehrenreich is “Becoming Solo” in New Solo: A Star Wars Story Featurette. Screenshots and Analysis
With a mere 25 days to go before release, Solo: A Star Wars Story dropped a new featurette Sunday morning simply titled “Becoming Solo”. In addition to comments on the movie by director Ron Howard and cape enthusiast Donald Glover, the 2-minute sneak peek was loaded with new footage and first looks at our heroes in action.
“We’re meeting Han right before he becomes the Han we know”, says Glover, just as we see our scruffy title character hang his lucky golden dice from his speeder’s windscreen. That luck may or may not be about to run out as we next see Han looking wide-eyed on the surface of the planet Mimban as laser bolts ricochet past and an AT-DT makes landfall. As Howard goes on to confirm that this won’t be easy for Han because “it’s a rite of passage, the tests he needs to face, the challenges he needs to endure” we briefly glimpse one of those possible hardships. In a blue-hued underground cave of sorts, Moloch appears to have Han at his mercy, his guards detaining him on the outskirts of a pool of water just as someone – or something – begins to rise slowly and quite massively from within.
It’s not all gloom and doom though. We see Han, Tobias Beckett and Val sharing a laugh while dressed in full Imperial assault regalia. Alden Ehrenreich even channels the infamous Harrison Ford finger point when he punctuates what “a great pilot” he is. And we witness one of the first true conversations between Han and his future Wookiee co-pilot as Chewbacca presumably introduces himself by his full Kashyyyk given name and Han quips, “you’re gonna need a nickname because I ain’t saying that every time.” Is Chewbacca merely a nickname? And does the title of this featurette, Becoming Solo, allude to Han becoming the man we know and love or a subtle hint that Solo may be a self-given moniker? Whoever he may be at the start, it certainly looks as if we’ll be much closer to seeing the man who stole the heart of a princess by the time Solo: A Star Wars Story has concluded.
And here are some of the more interesting screenshots from the featurette, with a brief description:
The color tones make us believe this is Corellia, Han Solo’s homeworld.
More of Corellia’s industrial-like scenery.
The infamous dice, that are an important attribute for the Falcon. We’ve seen them in A New Hope, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and now back to its origins – Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Han speeding on Corellia.
This scene is also happening on Corellia. You can see Moloch in the background. From the trailer and based on some toys we know Han will be racing against Moloch. We also know from some bios we shared recently that Han is part of a gang.
Could this be its leader?
From Moloch’s bio we know that he is a sadistic creature from the race of the White Worms, who are extremely sensitive to natural light.
That creature above seems to fit that description as well.
Based on the color tone and based on what we’ve seen from the trailers we assume this is also set on Corellia.
The Empire has a big presence there, and this is the place where people get assigned to different worlds, needed to help the Empire.
Han got drafted for Mimban, and this is where he meets Beckett…
…and his crew (preparing to do one of their heists).
Still it seems that Han is not enjoying his first steps as a mud trooper.
You can’t help but think of Finn and his first mission on Jakku…
Han and Enfys Nest’s gang are trying to get their hands on the precious cargo from the Conveyex. But what’s in it?
Lando being smooth as always. No matter the race.
I really wonder how the movie will explain Han’s ability to understand Chewie.
The image above pretty much confirms that this is Dryden Vos’ den which is located among the snowy mountains. Recently an official listing featured the following image as Dryden’s Lair:
At first we were not sure if this was accurate since all the shots with Dryden had a very warm feel which didn’t match the cold look of the snowy mountains. Now we know that the place where Han meets Qi’ra again and Dryden Vos does happen on the snowy planet (Vandor).
UPDATE!
Some new footage shown in a brief featurette on Disney Channel extrapolates on some of the points that Ron Howard and the case brought up here. Talking with one of Disney’s reporters, Alden Ehrenreich notes that we’ll see more of the Millennium Falcon in Solo than in any other Star Wars movie:
From the sound of things, Han comes up with “Chewie” as a shorthand for Chewbacca’s full name as a bit of improvisation, so we might have been a bit off about that bit of speculation when we did the write-up earlier. Ehrenreich looks like he’ll play off of Donald Glover well, as it seems like the big Sabacc game where the Millennium Falcon is put on the line could be a standout sequence. Regardless, Solo looks like a solid Star Wars spin-off and we can’t wait to catch it next month.
Under the twin suns of Los Angeles, Chris continues to mourn the loss of Admiral Ackbar while championing the rights of Ewoks everywhere. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @Chri5Manning for all your pun needs.
