Watch the first ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ trailer
Fans have been clamoring seemingly forever, weathering director switchups and a distinct lack of marketing, for any photos or footage from Solo: A Star Wars Story, the spinoff centering on the early days of iconic smuggler Han Solo with Alden Ehrenreich taking the mantle from Harrison Ford. Just three months before a May 25 release, we now have a trailer for the prequel spinoff and our feelings are best summed up with the words of notorious space gambler Lando Calrissian: “You look absolutely beautiful.”
Directed by Ron Howard, Solo promises an origin story for Han: The trailer opens with Han admitting that he’s been “running scams” on galactic streets since he was 10, was kicked out of a flight academy but is still dead-set on becoming the best pilot in the galaxy. In George Lucas’ original 1977 Star Wars film, Han was first seen amid the scum and villainy of the Mos Eisley Cantina, and he seems steeped in the criminal underworld here when he’s recruited by the mysterious Beckett (Woody Harrelson) to be part of his new crew. (What that crew’s up to? Don’t know yet but probably something illegal.)
Now, on the one hand, it was fun that we never really got Han’s backstory before he was found by Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi and became a reluctant hero. Or dug into the legend of how Han won the Millennium Falcon off Lando — in one cool moment in the Solo trailer, there’s Lando (Donald Glover) flying the Falcon with droid co-pilot L3-37 (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
But it’s undeniably great seeing a stylish young Lando, with all of Billy Dee Williams’ Empire Strikes Back suaveness combined with Glover’s own magnetism — he stole the Super Bowl teaser and might do the same with the whole movie. There are familiar sights (TIE Fighters screaming out of an Imperial Star Destroyer, a roaring Chewbacca, etc.) yet a lot of new, too, from Emilia Clarke’s femme fatale Qi’ra to Thandie Newton’s outlaw Val. The gunfighter vibe is fitting, especially considering the whole “Han shot first” debate from the first Star Wars. Also, the Falcon looks shiny and pristine, a vast difference from the hunk of junk we see later — Star Wars is all about mythology, and even the infamous starships have a tale to tell.
The most pleasant surprise might be Han himself. After the tumult around The Last Jedi, Ehrenreich’s take on the scruffy nerfherder may further divide the Star Wars faithful. No one will ever do Solo like Ford, period.
However, the trailer gets more right than wrong, from Han’s tendency to crash into things he’s driving to the look on Ehrenreich’s face, which goes from supreme cockiness to a glimpse of vulnerability when Clarke’s Qi’ra says to him, “I might be the only person who knows what you really are.” And the moment where Han tells his pals, “Thought we were in trouble there for a second but it’s fine. We’re fine,” before being attacked by a space monster calls back to so many old-school scenes with Ford, especially one involving the rescue of a certain princess from a certain Death Star.
Did we absolutely need a young Han Solo film? Probably not. Knowing a little more about what Howard and Co. have in store, though, harkens to another classic Lando quote: “You know, seeing you sure brings back a few things.”
