Let's Not Freak Out About the Han Solo Movie Just Yet

Lucasfilm
Esther Zuckerman 10,518 Views Feb 6, 2013

The day after Disney confirmed rumors that it would be developing stand-alone Star Wars films based on its beloved existing characters, Entertainment Weekly revealed Wednesday afternoon that beyond the Yoda talk, one of the new projects is a Han Solo origin story. There will be a Boba Fett adventure movie, too, but — what? A new Han Solo movie? Relax, there's hope. (A new hope, if you will.)

According to EW's information, the Han Solo spin-off (potentially the biggest of the now Disney-owned LucasFilm's post-J.J. Abrams projects) would take place in between Revenge of the Sith (the last of George Lucas's prequel reboot trilogy), and A New Hope (the first of the original series). The Boba Fett project is said to land somewhere in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back and The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

Several obvious questions already abound: First off, who on Earth could  possibly exude the ruggedly handsome snark of Harrison Ford ever again? (We're not buying Zachary Levi and never will.) Secondly, how many spin-offs before Disney collapses the franchise in the wake of its own desire to make a ton of money off the LucasFilm acquisition? And concern is already brewing on Twitter:

But! Anthony Breznican at Entertainment Weekly points out that, when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that spinoffs were in the works, he mentioned that they would be written by Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan. While Kinberg has done work on big-budget fare like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, some X-Men films, and Sherlock Holmes, Kasdan is a native to this world. He was one of the writers for both Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, so he's done work developing these characters in the time periods to which they are set to return. And he's set to help scribe some of the new  reboots of Star Wars proper, so he'll either steady the comeback (star?) ship or go down with the whole thing.

Still, let's not get too excited at once — there's always the possibility of Shia LaBeouf:

Update: Throwing a tiny bit of water on this, is a source talking to Deadline: "Nobody knows when these movies are even coming out. Right now, people are just kicking around ideas. Which is why you hear it’s Yoda one day and a young Han Solo another. It’s all in early development right now." 

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