Emilia Clarke Would Like to Play Qi’ra From Solo Again and LET HER
Solo: A Star Wars Story is somehow a divisive movie among fans of the Star Wars franchise, mainly because it continues to prove my theory that Han Solo is a hermit who hates most people, but alas. You either love it or hate it, and one character that fits in perfectly with that divide is Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra. In a shocking twist, I loved her and wanted more of her, even though I was initially against the idea of Qi’ra before the movie came out. But the minute I saw her on Corellia with Han and then later, when she’s working with Paul Bettany’s Dryden Vos, I was obsessed.
On the flip side, when I first talked about Emilia Clarke wanting to come back as Qi’ra, our Kaila Hale-Stern voiced how she didn’t particularly love Clarke in the role. Again, divisive. That being said, news broke that Emilia Clarke would love to return to Qi’ra, I was beyond excited. Talking to The Hollywood Reporter about her comic book and paying homage to Game of Thrones, Clarke was asked which character she’d like to return to playing. Clarke responded with Qi’ra and talked about how the character still had work to do:
She’s the one that has the most unfinished business. I really had pages about what her life was and what it would be afterwards. But I’m afraid I’ve heard nothing of [Disney+] being the case, so maybe I’ll just write it and send it to them. I’ll be like, ‘Hey guys, I’ve got a few ideas.’
It wouldn’t be the first time an actress reworked/wrote scenes for her own character. Famously, Carrie Fisher would rework a lot of her Leia scenes and the dialogue between characters. So Clarke bringing up the fact that she could just “write it herself,” even if she was making a joke, doesn’t feel out of the realm of possibility for Star Wars.
But I honestly would love to see a series written by Clarke on Qi’ra. We see how the Empire affected these characters in different ways, but rarely do we get to see someone in the thick of working with the Empire who did it as a way of surviving. Most of the time the Empire is filled with people who willingly believe what Palpatine and Darth Vader do. People like Qi’ra and by extension Boba Fett are there simply as a way of surviving. So going back to Qi’ra and her connection to everything is something I think would be beneficial to the series.
The women of Solo: A Star Wars Story are fascinating characters to me though and most of them have only really excited in that one movie and we’ve heard nothing about going back to them. We had Erin Kellyman’s Enfys Nest, Thandiwe Newton’s Val, and then, of course, we had Qi’ra. All three were interesting, but we got the briefest of glimpses at them and their story. And that’s heartbreaking to me, especially with Qi’ra.
She is clearly connected to the Empire in more ways than one, especially since we saw her talking to Darth Maul at the end of the movie. A clear tie to Star Wars: Rebels, that connection could lead to an interesting storyline that could connect to Obi-Wan Kenobi if they wanted it to. We could have so much more Qi’ra in our lives, and for those who didn’t really like Emilia Clarke’s performance in Solo, maybe this could be the exploration of the character that they needed to turn that around.
Disney, call her up. Emilia Clarke is ready and full of ideas and I want it!
(image: Lucasfilm)
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