Han Solo blasts into Disney's Star Wars universe with own film

Reading Time:1 minute

People dressed as Star Wars characters Chewbacca, Princess Leia and Han Solo throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:42am, 9 Jul 2015

Han Solo, the Star Wars space hero who always has a fast ship and a good blaster, will get his own stand-alone film, the Walt Disney Company said, directed by the Lego Movie filmmakers.

The untitled Han Solo project, due for release on May 25, 2018, will be the second stand-alone Star Wars anthology film, following the release of Rogue One next year. These films will explore a separate part of George Lucas's intricate intergalactic universe and will intersperse the new trilogy of Star Wars movies kicking off with December's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The new Han Solo film will focus on the origin story of the character made famous in the Star Wars films by actor Harrison Ford, who will reprise that role in The Force Awakens.

The new movie is to be directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, the men behind the hugely successful Lego movie.

Solo was introduced in the original Star Wars film as a former smuggler who takes Luke Skywalker aboard his ship, the Millennium Falcon, and helps him escape Darth Vader.

Solo becomes the loveable scoundrel of the Rebel Alliance, fighting against the oppressive Galactic Empire along with his friend and co-pilot Chewbacca, a bear-like "wookie".

"The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley," Disney said in a statement.