It’s an odd question coming from me, isn’t it?
“Why, Vance loves all things Star Wars so surely he’s excited for Solo!”
While it is true that I do love all Star Wars things, I’m honestly not as excited for this film as I should be. Following two solid outings from the new trilogy and one spin-off that was able to bring so much to the lore, I have to ask : Why Solo? Sure, I get that we love Han but did we need a movie about his pre-Episode IV antics? In all honesty, I don’t think that we did but not for the reasons you might be thinking.
So let me be clear, I have no doubt that this film will be around a 6-8 out of 10. It could be a lot of fun, show us early Han and Chewie and give us Donald Glover, who appears to be having a blast with the role, as Lando Calrissian. My main issue with this film is that I don’t think it’s needed.
When we first meet Han in A New Hope, he’s young, him and Chewie have been doing this for a while and he has no love for the empire. Everything I just told you was actually given out in the cantina scene. It’s the same reason that I don’t really want A Vader film because we already know everything about who he is as a character. The same can be said about Han and Chewbacca which is why I have to ask : Why did we need this movie?
Naturally, there are two schools of thought here and these follow all of the Star Wars Spin-Offs : 1. Will it improve some of the lore and add more for us to understand about the Star Wars Universe or 2. Is it just going to be fun? Now, I’m perfectly fine with it being the second one of those two but it still invites the question of why Han? Han’s entire story has been given to us and yet, we still know very little about Young Ben Solo, Young Poe Dameron, Obi-Wan’s 19 year exile, The Old Republic, A Clone Wars Spin-Off, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Boba Fett, Jango Fett or even a full film about Lando(This one might get a pass depending on how much screen time he gets.) I just gave you nine films just off the top of my head and all of them would make me more excited than this one has.
I know that everyone is different and trust me, I’m not complaining at all about getting more Star Wars but was this what we needed? For me, I would’ve used the Spin-Offs to fill in the gaps. My first film choice would’ve been The Old Republic for a very specific reason : When Disney bought Lucasfilm, they said that all of the books were no longer cannon…this makes sense if you’re talking about the New Republic because how else would we continue the film’s storylines(Also, I like the new films better than the Thrawn Trilogy, The Yuuzhan Vong and everything else anyway.) but that doesn’t make sense for anything prior to The Phantom Menace. So, My first film would feature the Old Republic somehow so I could set the record straight on what is still Cannon. Because so far, Darth Bane is the only thing I know that is still cannon.
Now, my first film choice is purely a fan service choice but what about the time between the trilogies? Once again : An Obi Wan film where he’s in exile would be great and supposedly that’s in the works but what about between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens. I would do a Young Poe Dameron film to see the fall of The Empire and the rise of The First Order through a young boy’s eyes who then follows in his mother’s footsteps and becomes a Pilot(You need to read Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka, it’s pretty awesome.) That would be compelling and it would strengthen the bond between Poe and Leia because you could feature her as a side character.
At the end of the day, I trust Disney and Lucasfilm. I know that I basically complained about us getting another film but ultimately it could be great and then I will promptly eat my words.
