With Lucasfilm‘s Solo: A Star Wars Story the #1 movie in the country two weeks in a row, we thought enough of you have seen the movie by now to want to know what the creative forces behind the film brainstormed but ultimately left out of the spin-off film. Utilizing the new Abrams book “The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story”** we have assembled 12 Scrapped Ideas From Solo: A Star Wars Story, which you can check out in the gallery below!
Click here to buy your own copy of The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story!
Solo: A Star Wars Story makes the jump to light speed in a high-octane adventure that navigates the perils of a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, forges new friendships that will last a lifetime, and reveals untold secrets from the hidden past of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes. Han Solo meets loyal co-pilot Chewbacca and notorious gambler Lando Calrissian for the first time, bound by a desperate mission against impossible odds that will help shape the irresistible scoundrel audiences have come to love.
Directed by Ron Howard, Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Hail, Caesar‘s Alden Ehrenreich as Han, with Atlanta‘s Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and The Force Awakens‘ Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. Woody Harrelson is playing Han’s mentor, a man by the name of Beckett, while Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke, Westworld‘s Thandie Newton, Avengers‘ Paul Bettany, and Fleabag‘s Phoebe Waller-Bridge also star.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters everywhere.
Click here to read previous Scrapped Ideas features for The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi!
**Note: Not all the pictures in the gallery are from the book, as some pertinent images were not made available by press time. We’ve substituted appropriately where noted.
12 Scrapped Ideas From Solo: A Star Wars Story
-
Young-er Han Solo?
Although he's a teenager at the beginning of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Han was originally envisioned as a much younger Dickensian street rat during both Lawrence Kasdan's early writing process as well as a scrapped cameo in 2005's Revenge of the Sith. First drafts also sketched Han's early career as a Top Gun-style resistance pilot in a faction of different aliens fighting against the Empire.
-
Han's Alien Girlfriend?
Qi'ra, as played by Emilia Clarke, was almost a humanoid alien instead of a human, but they couldn't figure out a design that was pleasing.
"Every time we touched upon the human form, it fell into some sort of fashion niche or 'Trek'-like genres, like steampunk," said practical creature designer Neal Scanlan. "It's a very tough gray area. One needs to go all the way or not at all."
-
Wookie Stormtroopers?
There was an earlier draft of the script in which Chewbacca and other Wookies are enslaved to fight for the Empire, and are seen wearing storm trooper masks. This would have saved costs for the production having to build too many practical Wookie faces.
-
Corellia Prison?
Originally the teenage Han met Chewie in a prison much earlier in his life after an attempted escape on Corellia, with that prison design inspired by an old Ralph McQuarrie painting from The Empire Strikes Back.
**prison painting by Ralph McQuarrie, not from Solo
-
Imperial Mech Walkers
Rather than the traditional chicken walker AT-ST's seen during the battle on the swamp world of Mimban, Han and Chewie were originally going to face off against giant Imperial Mechs that somewhat resemble the evil robot villain in Robocop 2, but this idea must have been deemed too derivative of anime.
**photo from the film, not the referred to art on page 26 of the book.
-
Barroom Brawl
Han and Chewie originally fought side by side on Mimban for the Empire, and eventually get into a brawl inside a bar, with Han fighting dirty to compensate for the height Chewie had on him. There was also a reverse on the life debt with Chewie actually saving Han's life.
-
Two Aliens Are Better Than One?
Originally there were going to be TWO aliens in Beckett's crew. With a four-eyed humanoid alien called Rio Durant AND a squid monkey named Zapf originally pegged to be co-pilots until those two characters were consolidated into the Rio in the film, voiced by Jon Favreau.
"Rio was an ace pilot with the natural advantage of seeing more than the average aviator."
** to see the concept art of the original Rio go to page 103 of the book
-
Vandoor Space Horse
During the train heist on Vandoor, Han & co. were originally going to ride a buffalo-esque space horse, giving the film much more of that iconic western feel.
-
Dryden Vos the Alien
The character of Dryden Vos was originally a CGI alien being played by Michael K. Williams, who shot a good deal of footage with original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but was unable to return for the Ron Howard reshoots due to schedule conflicts. The planned design for him was a Lasat creature like Zeb from Star Wars Rebels, and there was more of a love triangle between Han, Qi'ra and Dryden. The production ultimately opted to simply make him a human played by Howard regular Paul Bettany.
-
Elephant-Sized Mole Creature
Early drafts of the script had an elephant-sized naked mole creature named a Wapota with a giant drill on his face for mining. The thing goes crazy and runs amuck during the riot on Kessel, leading to "the slowest foot chase ever" with Han and Chewie trying to get the coaxium out of the tunnel.
-
Taanab
Remember that Battle of Taanab that Lando mentions he pulled a maneuver at in Return of the Jedi? That planet was originally going to be a lush tropical planet inspired by Southeast Asia where both Dryden Vos and Enfys Nest made their home and battled over territory. This was changed when Dryden's giant luxury ship became his home base.
** picture from Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, not referred to picture on page 139 of the book
-
Alternate opening?
One of the artists pitched an opening sequence in which a Star Destroyer comes into view over Corellia, echoing the opening shot of A New Hope, only for us to realize it's in segments and still under construction. A similar idea was hashed out for the opening of Force Awakens, with a small cruiser pulling a scrapped and abandoned Star Destroyer over Jakku.
** other Star Destroyer art from the book, to see the original segmented drawing go to page 66 of the book
