Star Wars Anthology: Han Solo

Entertainment Weekly strikes back with another piece on our favorite smuggler, Han Solo. In it Kathleen Kennedy, and Lawrence Kasdan give fans the scoop on what to expect, and when.

Plans for the standalone movies, known officially as “anthology” films, began long before Lucasfilm was purchased by The Walt Disney Co. in 2012. Although he is now retired from the Star Wars storytelling business, Lucas gave his blessing to exploring individual characters in one-off films.

“It was one of the first things he sat down to talk to me about: What would those movies be?” says Kennedy, who took over as head of the company in summer of 2012, just months before the Disney sale. “That’s where we discussed not only reigniting the saga, but talking about the standalone, what has now become the anthology films.”

After that conversation, the next discussion was who should write a potential Han Solo history? Kasdan’s history with Star Wars as a writer on Empire and Jedi, as well as his history with Ford, writing the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, helped make him the first choice.

Actually, he had the option to do any kind of Star Wars story he liked. Kasdan said he had turned Lucas down when approached about working on the prequels, yet it was a different sort of prequel that interested him this time.

“They said, ‘Here are the things that we’d like to make movies about,’ and I said, ‘Oh, well, Han Solo. I would write a movie about Han Solo. He’s always been my favorite.’ And that’s the job that I took,” Kasdan says.

Another question is how young they should go with young Han Solo. In the Star Wars prequels, Lucas began by presenting Darth Vader as a mischievous, pod-racing child. They won’t be venturing that far back with Solo.

“He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s,” Kennedy says. “We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”

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