Yes, that’s right folks, there’s all manner of cool new Star Wars stuff coming at us right now! While there’s a part of me that still feels a little like it might be too much new Star Wars stuff, I’m still excited as all hell to see this stuff, so let’s jump right in!
The next anthology movie is, of course, the Han Solo standalone film, Solo. I actually wanted to not like this, as I felt like it was a step too far somehow. Rogue One was really good, and while I think the idea of a film about how the Rebels got the Death Star plans was a bit shaky, I think the film itself is one of my all-time favourites from the franchise, and definitely one that I find myself wanting to watch time and again. It really is quite amazing, but the thought of another film set within this timeframe, one that could quite likely find itself leading up to that point that Han walks into the Mos Eisley cantina, seemed a little flat to me. Maybe I just don’t want anyone other than Harrison Ford to play the role. Maybe my inner hipster is just too loud on this point. But I was, at times, determined to not like this one…
Well, the teaser is now out, and I am enraptured! Oddly, I didn’t think much of Rogue One from its trailers, yet have come to really enjoy that film, so maybe the same will be true here, as well! The cast looks great – I don’t actually mind Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo, it looks like he’s going to be making the role his own rather than trying too much for a young Ford impression, and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian could be amazing!
I think a lot of my initial warmth comes from the fact that it looks like a lot of the established lore of the character has been preserved. Han was always a washed-out Imperial pilot-turned-petty-criminal, and it seems this is going to follow that premise but with its own spin on things. That looks to be very cool. What I like the most, though, is that we seem to be promised a look at the more ordinary lives of folk within the Empire. Sure, Luke’s life on Tatooine might be said to provide that already, but we’re mainly concerned with events of galactic import in both A New Hope and Rogue One. If Solo pans out as I think it will, we’re looking more at a film with the possibility of showing us a lot more of the regular galaxy during this time, and that is a very exciting thought, I have to say!
Solo is out on 25 May, and I’m already counting down the days!
But that’s not all the news out right now…
Disney have confirmed that a couple of TV shows are in the works, with some theories that at least one will be replacing the Rebels cartoon with another animated show. We’ve been promised a live-action TV series since before Revenge of the Sith, of course, so it would be cool to finally see something come from that kernel, too. I’m not a huge TV watcher, but it does strike me that people are doing fantastic things with the small screen these days, so I guess it could finally be the right time for something amazing to come along!
We’re also getting a new series of movies that are separate from the episode films, and from the new trilogy being worked on by Rian Johnson that was recently announced. This new series will be created by David Benioff and DB Weiss, the creators of the Game of Thrones TV series, though hopefully with a little less violence… The series will reportedly be spun from “a point in time in Star Wars mythology”, which rather makes it sound like a series of anthology films in the vein of Rogue One. Could it be the Old Republic? Who knows. I’m finding myself a big fan of these anthology films, and I’m really stoked for Rian Johnson’s trilogy, but to have yet another series of films feels a bit like Star Wars overload once again.
I’ve talked about this before, of course, but a new Star Wars movie used to be An Event, with fans waiting years while gathering the hints and clues. Now it’s just, “oh yeah, there’s another Star Wars film coming out…” For sure, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has proven to be a huge success, but even that vast juggernaut is not without its flaws, especially the longer it has gone on. Are we going to see the same with Star Wars? A series of formulaic movies that are created solely to create more money? It’s arguable that the original three only existed to create money, but I rather liked the fact that George Lucas’ six movies actually felt complete in and of themselves, and while the story of that universe had been expanded through novels and comics, the films themselves were basically self-contained. Now, we have the potential for an expanded universe situation to exist in movie form, where my shelf of DVDs (or whatever medium we’re using then) in twenty years’ time is full of throwaway movies of varying interest and significance. I feel a bit uneasy with how my beloved Star Wars is being pumped for every last dollar that it’s worth, though ultimately I guess it doesn’t really matter if these movies are all beautiful and fantastic!
But what does everybody else think? Are we in danger of over-saturation? Or is it just a glorious time to be a Star Wars fan? Let me know in the comments!
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