Solo: A Star Wars Story Trailer Breakdown and Screenshots

It’s insane to me that we are 45 days away from another installment in the Star Wars universe. Honestly we’re probably a little spoiled right now given that we just had The Last Jedi in December but we finally got the full trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story. If you haven’t watched it already, what are you waiting for? Go watch it and come back because I have a really good feeling about this.

 

Warning: This article may contain mild spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story!

 

(click on the images for bigger versions)

 

 

The trailer starts with a birds eye view of Han’s home planet Corellia. After all these years we are finally seeing the often talked about planet appear in a Star Wars film. We see a lonely speeder (perhaps’ Han’s) charging on the street.

 


 

Next we see a cool shot of the famous Corellian shipyards, where] the Empire piecing together a Star Destroyer in the night sky. The Corellian shipyards have been mentioned in a couple of other Canon and Legends books, and are a major cog in the Imperial Machine.

 


 

We see Han walk through the dark and grimy streets with three men huddled around a fire, with Han walking to what appears to be some kind of bar or club that requires some screening and shows us the final shot from the Super Bowl ad.

 

 

In the shot above we see that Han has some bruises. I would speculate that this is where Han goes to collect his award after the illegal race on the streets of Corellia which he won against Moloch and other competitors. Perhaps he crashed the speeder after the end of the race, or his wounds were caused by the Corellian hounds who are expected to be unleashed on them during the race.

 

Q’ira’s voice over comes through.

” You’re after something”

 

Enter the Cloud Riders and the recently revealed female character, Enfys Nest waiting for what appears to be our favorite soon to be smuggler. This shot in particular, while not new, has a distinct Western feel to it that fits in perfectly for Han’s origin.

 

Now let’s enhance the image and see all the 12 gang members more closely. From left to right:

 

 

Just yesterday we saw a new Funko figure for the little character from image. We know they don’t usually put limitations on merchandising (see Constable Zuvio), but is it possible under the mask of this character we may find fan favorite Warwick Davis? We’ll put our betting chips on that for the time being.

 

 

Below we have a better look at Enfys Nest’s swoop bike, which looks like it is ready to grab and disperse stuffed animals as a claw machine in your local arcade. This vehicle has been featured several times now, including recent toy promotions, and we are curious to find out what it sounds like and all the ways it moves!

 

 

 

A better look at Nest. Call me crazy but am I the only one who sees shades of the Knights of Ren in her design? Granted I could be reaching, but I think there is a resemblance, which makes sense as Lucasfilm has been known to borrow concepts originally intended for one movie and use it in another where it may have a better fit.

 

 

The trailer will have our brains thinking Han is staring down the gang intensely here. This is an intriguing place to insert that specific line, “…revenge?”, suggesting the Cloud Riders and Nest have wronged Han and that at least parts of the film will be about Han out to deliver some sort of payback. But as with almost all recent Star Wars trailers, while it was edited to look like this is that moment with Han staring out at Enfys Nest, it may very well just be another shot entirely. Notice Chewie’s hairy shoulder next to Han on the bottom left of the photo.

 

 

 

The clip then moves on to three of my favorite shots in the trailer. Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), surrounded by many seedy looking humans and creatures, looking up to see a calm and fully swaggered Han Solo. To the right of Lando you can see the now social media made famous Therm Scissorpunch (whose name we’ll likely never hear spoken in the film). The image has been brightened to give us a better look at everything, including the racoon-like creature next to Solo, who we’ve seen in the Denny’s commercial. There’s been a lot of debate over how Alden will fit the mold as Han Solo, but that subtle smirk of cautiously confident observance is vintage Han Solo. As Han goes all in on a game of Sabacc, Q’ira’s voice-over continues to hover over it all.

“Money?”

 

 

As Han and Chewie gaze up at the Millennium Falcon, Q’ira continues,

“or something else”

 

I think it’s worth pointing out that our own James Baney of The Resistance Broadcast caught from the last trailer. This is one of two shots from the previous teasers where Chewie was not included in the initial verson for whatever reason. Did Ron Howard opt to edit him in? Teaser misdirection? We have no clue why, but it’s interesting either way.

 

 

Here we get another little sneak peek of the relationship between Q’ira and Han. Everything we’ve heard about their relationship suggests they know each other very well, and for quite some time.

 

 

Above is the second example of a shot from the initial teaser that didn’t include Chewie. This shot made me laugh. It’s almost as though Han and Qi’ra are on vacation and Chewie is carrying their bags. I am pretty sure the Wookiee won’t be happy with that. Damn life debts.

 

 

 

Han meets with his mentor Tobias Beckett about a big time job, but even more than that, one of those life choices one makes that changes who they become, and their future entirely.

 

 

 

Our first glimpse of Dryden Vos, the big shot gangster the trailer wants us to believe Beckett is referring to. It appears that he has some cool looking guards. Check out the helmets on the brightened image above. This looks to be the the same club we saw in the last trailer with the singer and floating frog head. It may also be the same area where we see Han and Q’ira earlier, there’s no doubt this is a different take on the grimy underworld we know and love. It is likely Vos’s lair and surfaces a bit more later in the trailer. Look at those scars! It is clear Vos hasn’t exactly taken the easy road to power.

 

 

 

We find out quickly that Han has more talents than just piloting, he can drive too! We get some cool shots of Han street racing with Qi’ra through the streets of Corellia. We believe these shots take place earlier on in the timeline when the two meet.

 

 

 

This bit seems like it connects well with the conversation we saw in the Super Bowl trailer, where Han is talking to the Empire officer of some sort. This is a very different Han than the one we meet in A New Hope. Notice that Han is wearing a uniform, likely a trooper uniform. From the LEGO sets and Hasbro toys we know that Han and Beckett will be dressed as imperials at some point. This is most likely Han’s Mudtrooper uniform that he will wear on Mimban (see toy images below).

 

 

 

 

A brief shot of Moloch and Han racing on Corellia.

 

 

 

Han showing off a bit of his piloting skills, forever trying to prove himself – to himself – this time with something a little more bulky and complicated than the speeder we saw earlier. Han is wearing the furry coat we’ve seen him in on the snowy mountains, so he is definitely piloting this ship. This is not tricky editing. In previous trailers we’ve seen the alien character Rio Durant (see image below), voiced by Jon Favreau piloting the same ship (notice the similarities of the interior and the controls). While we didn’t see him in this trailer, we can now confidently connect him to this style of ship, and possible even this exact one at some point in the film!

 

 

As we told you before this ship is called a “Cargo Hauler”. Notice that it carries a carriage from the Conveyex train. You can also see the Cloud Rider gang with Enfys Nest flying next to it:

 

 

As a matter of fact, later in this article we’ll see confirmation that the Cargo Hauler steals a whole carriage from the Conveyex. And whatever is in this carriage it’s highly explosive:

 

 

 

 

We’ve heard a couple of quotes about Han being a bit more of an idealist and just wanting a chance to prove himself and we seem to be seeing that here.

“I waited a long time for a shot like this.”

 

 

There is a moment between Han and Beckett here that parallels one shared between Han and Rey in The Force Awakens. The mentor Beckett handing his pupil his blaster (in this case the famous Han Solo DL-44), which immediately adds weight to Han Solo having come full circle when he becomes the mentor handing young Rey her blaster in The Force Awakens. Very cool moment to see, even without that perspective.

 

 

Now this has to be one of our favorite moments in the entire trailer and feels in line with Han and Chewie’s friendship. Han asks for the Wookiee’s opinion on something, doesn’t get the answer he’s looking for from his buddy and retorts “Well what do you know?” This is one of the signature moments from this trailer that is simply Kasdan’s words jumping right off the pages, and Ehrenreich applies the right amount of “cool” subtly to it to pull it off. It reminds us a bit of the moment before the attack on the Death Star in A New Hope when Han and Chewie are bailing, Chewie disapproves of Han’s actions to which the smuggler says “What’re you lookin’ at? I know what I’m doing.”

 

 

If you ever wanted to see the Elephant Graveyard from The Lion King make it into a Star Wars film, good news! At least that’s what it immediately made me think of when I first saw this shot.

 

 

 

Q’ira reveals she has a contact who has a ship fit for the job they’re going to pull, which reveals Q’ira is the initial connection between Han and Lando.

 

 

“He’s the best smuggler around.” Lando in his very cool and chic fur coat, so far so good from Donald Glover.

 

 

 

Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Like any two proud and big personalities (egos) this is the moment we see Han and Lando sizing each other up. Han with a little cocky smirk – both staring each other down over a game of Sabacc.

 

 

In the back of the second image you can see interstellar lawman Tam Posla. He also appeared for a few frames in Rogue One. Matt Martin from the Lucasfilm Story Group has confirmed it is indeed him.

 

 

We finally hear what we’ve been waiting for since the teaser, Lando speaks! Lando lets Han know that everything he’s heard about him is true. All he needs is a cape and then it would be prime Calrissian. Glover appears perfect for the role, and he’s taking Billy Dee’s advice to heart: “Just be cool.”

 

 

Chewie laughs at Lando’s assertion and loves watching the game the two are playing.

 

 

Here we get a better look at L3, who many thought was Q’ira’s droid but she appears to accompany Lando. The smuggler yells for the droid to let go of “the mean man” and she obliges. If you take a closer look at this “mean man” it looks a lot like director Ron Howard’s brother Clint who appears in all of Ron’s movies and was confirmed to have a cameo in Solo as well! It’s a quick shot but we believe that’s him.

 

 

L3 meeting the crew and nonchalantly asking who they are. It’s hard not to think of K2-SO from Rogue One but she looks and sounds great! We previously learned that she is constantly upgrading her own parts by taking parts form other droids. A very unique and interesting trait to this sentient droid, who appears to pack a lot of personality.

 

 

Is this Han stepping onto the Falcon for the first time? It sure looks that way, you can see through that smirk that he likes what he sees. Perhaps he’s already dreaming big, imagining himself as its Captain.

 

 

Han gets what appears to be a final pep talk (or maybe a warning) from Beckett that his life will never be the same. “If you come with us, you’re in this life for good.” Is this an uncertain Han Solo?  If that’s the case it highlights this moment as a younger less stubborn Han Solo, one that isn’t set in his ways.

 

 

The engines are roaring and Lando warns Han, ““You might want to buckle up, baby.” If they were trying to sell Lando as fun, relaxed, and cool, they’ve done it. We are even more eager to see more Lando in six weeks!

 

 

Beckett takes on some Range Troopers on top of the Conveyex, the troopers equipped with blasters and magnetic boots that keep them from falling off the train. We know that this heist plays a pivotal role in the film and will be instrumental in Han’s jump into the underworld.

 

 

The heist continues with Beckett successfully shooting a Range Trooper off the train. Notice the Cargo Hauler (piloted by Han perhaps?) reaching the Conveyex in the next image. This supports our previous claim that part of the Conveyex will become airborn.

 

 

Beckett’s voice rings out offering to give Han some advice, some advice that will undoubtedly have an important role in the film, and as we learn in The Empire Strikes Back, is sound advice he probably should have employed then:

 

 

 

“Assume everyone will betray you, and you will never be disappointed.”

 

This new walker is known as an Imperial AT-DT walker.

 

 

Val is firing a harpoon like weapon. Considering the background, this is probably during the Conveyex heist. This is probably how they attach one of the carriages to the Cargo Hauler.

 

 

It is safe to assume where Han picked up his attitude when we first meet him in A New Hope. Look out for number one, and nothing else matters.

 

 

Chewie and his wife Malla, first introduced in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, share a sweet moment. Malla was canonized in The Princess, The Smuggler and The Farm Boy novel, but more notably, Chuck Wendig mentioned her in Life Debt and Empire’s End.

 

 

“I’ve got a really good feeling about this.” Kasdan loves symmetry and rounding things out. Could any line fit that mold more perfectly than this?

 

The Imperial Heavy TIE Fighter!

 

 

Why is the Empire after Han? So many questions but we know one thing, they have the right ship to escape the pursuer.

 

 

In what may be the funniest moment of the trailer, Han seems confused that Chewie knows how to fly, after a mighty growl from the Wookiee, Han says:

“You’re 190 years old?! You look great!”

 

Writer Lawrence Kasdan said this movie is “…a love story between Han and Chewie.” If the bits from this trailer are any indication, they nailed it.

 

 

Could this image above be the actual Kessel Run? It almost looks like the Falcon is going through the planet using the mines.

 

This moment is a bit weird and confusing to some at SWNN. Han is clearly about to go use the hyperdrive and appears to say “push it” instead of the usual “punch it”. The captions for the video clearly say ‘punch it” but we still hear “push it”. It’s a very weird phenomenon either way. What do you hear?

 

 

In a moment we’ve become used to, as recent as in The Last Jedi, does the Falcon save the day? This looks like the standoff with Nest at the beginning of the trailer, maybe the Cloud Riders are too much and instead of Han saving the day it’s someone else.

 

 

Paul Bettany is simply menacing as Dryden Vos. What’s this weapon he using? It looks a bit like the swords used by the Praetorian Guards in The Last Jedi with a more gangster, brass knuckles vibe to it. Vos is clearly not happy and might be unhinged. His face has clearly had a couple of run ins with something shard or abrasive, perhaps his own weapon? This could be a scene in which he hears some bad news, and like Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens takes it out on some of his fancy decorative items. Time for another trip to the local Space IKEA!

 

 

More troopers in action! These are the Mudtroopers that we will see on Mimban, the planet first seen in the Legend novel Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.

 

 

We’ve always known that Wookiees are insanely strong, but man, this is brutal. Chewy just throws this guy up with one hand and drops him on his head. It’s a safe bet we will see more action from Chewie than we’ve ever seen before in this movie!

 

 

Some final action shots with Q’ira and L3, with L3 shouting a playful

“I’m so glad we took this job!”

 

This final emotional moment is classic Han and Chewie. We’ve heard Han scream out “Chewie!” before, but never in a moment this desperate and worrisome. Although we know both of them make it out alive, somehow Howard and company were able to strike fear in us, which is a great sign for the movie, which is often a problem for prequels when you already know characters end games.

 

Overall, there is a lot to be excited for in this trailer. The tone is really in line with the original special spirit of Star Wars. The drama and turmoil from the production issues of last year have been extinguished by this two minute eleven second clip, as it has been mostly revered by fans.

 

What did you think about the trailer?

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story makes the jump to theaters on May 25th.

 

Find me on Twitter @StarWarsBill and you can hear me and John talk more about the trailer and all things Star Wars on our official podcast The Resistance Broadcast (@RBatSWNN).

 

 

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