Why I’m Not Excited for Solo: A Star Wars Story

By now I’m sure we’ve seen all of the trailers for Solo: A Star Wars Story. But then there are also those die hard fans who will boycott anything related to a new film until they are sitting in the theatre popcorn in hand for fear of spoilers. If you are this kind of person: this is your warning to turn around and leave now.

I am not one of those fans. I’ve seen every Star Wars film and trailer that led up to the release. I’ve watched all of the animated Clone Wars episodes, and dozens of fan films on YouTube. I’ve read the comics and played the video games, and I even watched that godawful Christmas special. For each of the last three new Star Wars films, I’ve been excited and got chills running down my spine from just the trailers alone.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, however, does not make me excited. I saw the first trailer and I have dreaded watching it.

The monologue just rubbed me the wrong way. It’s like the writers forgot who Han was. Sure, this is his “origin story” and we need to turn Han into the scruffy looking nerf-herder we known and love. But how does a kid who’s been running scams on the street even end up in the Imperial Academy? There are some things that are constant throughout Han as a character and Han’s disrespect for authority is one of them. I also struggle to even see him joining a team. Sure, this might be the one that turns him off of joining any other teams, but he’ll do anything if the money is good enough.

Another problem I have is that Solo is taking place only a few years away from A New Hope. This isn’t teen Han or fresh-out-of-the-Academy Han. This is an experienced Han. From everything I’ve seen, Alden Ehrenreich is no Harrison Ford. He doesn’t even seem close to the Han we know.

Then there’s the filming struggles and rumours. Disney fired the original directors with 3 weeks left in filming and brought in Ron Howard who reshot 80% of the film. An acting coach was also supposedly brought in for Ehrenreich. An unconfirmed source said Disney expected Solo: A Star Wars Story to flop. There’s also rumours the script was awful, and that Lucasfilm doubled the budget in order to salvage the film. There’s nothing to substantiate the rumor about Disney’s faith in the film or the script.

I really hope I’m wrong. I like the Star Wars franchise and the character of Han Solo. And yet despite all of this, I’ll still be seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story. The primary reasons will be to see Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca. Plus the stuff from the Star Wars universe that we haven’t yet seen before on the big screen such as the different locations, the ships, and aliens. Basically, I’m going to see Han Solo’s solo film for everything but Han Solo.