Hey Hollywood, can we please stop calling every blockbuster a “heist movie”? Disney has been particularly good at trotting out that genre card, with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Ant-Man” all described as such along the way. And guess what? “Solo: A Star Wars Story” is a heist movie too.
As per usual, EW is trotting out the first official new images from ‘Solo,’ and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy describes the picture as “a heist, gunslinger type movie.” It falls in line with what she said about in 2016 about the spinoff, when she teased it would have a “heist or Western type feel.” But there seems to be a bit of an identity crisis about ‘Solo,’ because the same EW piece also describes the spinoff as “a Western crossed with a film noir, freighted with offbeat humor and set in the criminal underbelly of a galaxy being torn apart.”
It kinda makes you understand why Phil Lord and Chris Miller might’ve bailed after falling into creative differences with Lucasfilm; ‘Solo’ seems like a war of ideas trying to find their footing.
Oh, by the way, ‘Solo’ will also be a bromance, if you need to throw some more adjectives on the pile. “To me, this is a love story between Han and Chewie,” screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan told the magazine. “Their relationship has always been my favorite part of the saga, and the fact that only Han understands what Chewie is saying, I find a very funny possibility for comedy.”
Among the new characters, the most compelling might be Woody Harrelson‘s Tobias Beckett, who becomes a guide to young Han. ”He’s a powerful criminal, but a free agent,” director Ron Howard explained. “Tobias Beckett really shapes Han more than anybody, as Han comes to believe that in a lawless time, he needs a moral code.”
Overall, the movie will give us Han Solo before he was a hero; a bit more immature, but perhaps not as cynical. “He needs to gain the respect of the people he interacts with, even if they’re the lowest of the low,” Kennedy explained.
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” opens on May 25th. Check out the new images below.
