Co-writer of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jon Kasdan, reveals the scene that got Disney interested in the film.
Solo is now out in the wild but before Disney was ever in the Star Wars picture, Jon Kasdan, who co-wrote the film with his father Lawrence, was working on the project for Lucasfilm.
Kasdan has revealed to CinemaBlend that when Disney purchased Lucasfilm he had to pitch the new owners on the idea of Solo and chose to tell them about the scene where Han receives his last name. In the finished movie, we see Han saying that he has no surname, so one is given to him.
“Five years ago, when I came onto the thing — and Disney wasn’t on when I came on, then three weeks later, they owned the company — and they came up to Marin and Kathy [Kennedy] got the people who were already working on it to make a five-minute presentation to Bob Iger and Alan Horn and everyone. My presentation was, [Han] comes to an immigration spot and someone asks, ‘What’s your name?’ It’s not just that he doesn’t have a name, which tells you a lot about his history. He says ‘I have no people.’ That to me is so forlorn and so isolating and rife, and the guy fills in his name. Bob Iger said ‘Alright, I’m in.’ That was it. That was the moment. He reacted to it the way I reacted to it, which was, it’s very moving. This was a guy who has nothing. Someone plants a name on him. He doesn’t even know the guy. It sticks for the rest of the saga.”
It’s certainly a moving moment in the film and changes how we look at Han in his other Star Wars appearances. The scene is somewhat controversial among fans, with a number of people not liking the idea that ‘Solo’ isn’t the character’s real last name. However, it’s very interesting that it was this scene that convinced Disney to go ahead with the project.
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A new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Tobias Beckett, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-37, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi’Ra, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, Ian Kenny (Sing Street) as Rebolt, Harley Durst (Wonder Woman) as Moloch, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Rio Durant, Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as Dryden Vos and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) as Weazel.
