Writer Lawrence Kasdan on What the Han Solo Movie Will and Will Not Be

There are many ways a Han Solo movie could go right, and there are at least as many ways it could go terribly, terribly wrong. Either way, Disney’s planning one, and at least they’ve got it in good hands with Lawrence Kasdan writing (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and The Force Awakens) and duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller directing, but it’s still a long way off, and no one yet knows what it’ll be.

Well, except for the writer, maybe. In a rather lengthy Q&A (also featuring director J.J. Abrams) and following a Directors Guild of America screening of The Force Awakens, Kasdan fielded some questions about his work on the upcoming Han Solo standalone movie. It should come as no surprise that the person who gave Han Solo some of his best material in the original Star Wars trilogy was even more excited to take on the anthology film than The Force Awakens:

I wasn’t sure I wanted to be involved, and I was a little relieved when they said Michael Arndt had been hired to write Episode VII, because whoever writes that episode—I don’t know what you do with it. But they said, “Here are these other stories we’d like to do,” and the one that caught my attention was a young Han Solo, because that’s my favorite character.

Also maybe not entirely surprisingly, Kasdan doesn’t want to rewind the clock all the way and do a Han Solo origin story. It’s easy to see why, as that’d likely involve telling the story of a much different character, when Kasdan finds the person Han eventually becomes so compelling. He said,

It will not be, “Here’s where he was born and this is how he was raised.” I think what it will be is what was he like 10 years earlier—maybe a little earlier, you’ll get a glimpse. But Kurosawa once said the heroes are the ones that are still changing and the villains are locked and petrified into what they are, and Harrison embodies in Force Awakens someone who is still not settled on who he is.

It’s also easy to see why you wouldn’t want to demystify the origins of a character who benefits from being a bit of a mystery. After all, we all saw what happened when they tried to give a backstory to Ana—

OK, OK. I won’t bring it up.

Anyway, so far, all signs point to the Han Solo movie being in good hands—situation normal so far. What’ll really be the make-or-break moment for this flick will probably be the performance. Who’s your pick to pull off a young-but-not-too-young Han Solo?

(via /Film, image via Disney/Lucasfilm)

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