Entertainment

The New 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Character Posters Will Leave You Wanting More

by Tolly Wright
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The newest movie to take place in a galaxy far, far away will hit theaters in just a month, and the posters for Solo: A Star Wars Story are a great look at the new characters entering the franchise. Though the action film is focused on a character every Star Wars fan is already quite familiar with, the titular Han Solo, this is the first time we're seeing him in the days before the Millennium Falcon pilot got drawn in to Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia's orbit. In the days before he joined the rebel forces fighting against Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, he ran with an entirely different crew. The character posters for the upcoming blockbuster highlight just how many of those crew members and others we're not yet familiar with.

So far the trailers for Solo have mostly focused on the players we already know. These teasers mainly feature actor Alden Ehrenreich, who is playing the young version of the smuggler Harrison Ford made famous; Donald Glover as a rather sharply dressed Lando Calrissian (played in the original trilogy by Billy Dee Williams); and Han's faithful BFF, Chewbacca. It was previously established that these characters have a long history together — Han and Chewie are presented as long-time friends and partners in Star Wars: Episode IV, and they acknowledge that they have something of a complicated past with Lando in Star Wars: Episode V . As is to be expected, all three of these characters got an epic poster ahead of the movie's release.

The other characters who have gotten the most screentime so far in the trailers are Emilia Clarke's Qi'Ra and Woody Harrelson's Tobias Beckett. Though these characters are brand new to the franchise, there have been a few plot details surrounding them already revealed.

Clarke explained during an interview with Entertainment Weekly, that her character and Solo have known each other since they were kids. In Solo, she's the one who knows the lovable scoundrel the best, and the Game of Thrones actor hints that they have a romantic aspect to their relationship. She revealed that her character plays an important part in developing who Han becomes, and she's described as a "femme fatale."

Meanwhile, according to Screen Rant, Beckett is a veteran thief who is bringing together the characters (including Solo) for some sort of major heist. Beckett is something of a mentor to Solo — the movie's screenwriters Lawrence and Jon Kasdan told EW that they loosely based the Beckett-Solo relationship off of the pirate Long John Silver's relationship to the young Jim Hawkins in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

The other characters to get posters are the droid L3-37, who is voiced by Fleabag's Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Val played by Westworld's Thandie Newton, Dryden who's played by A Beautiful Mind's Paul Bettany, and Rio, voiced by filmmaker Jon Favreau.

According to Screenrant, Rio and Val are both members of Beckett's squad. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told EW about the Val and Beckett relationship: "They've been partners a long time." Jon Kasdan weighed in on the partnership in the same article and claimed that Val doesn't "have total faith in Han." Rio, meanwhile is an an alien that looks like a blue monkey, which means he'll probably be everyone's favorite character.

According to Syfy, L3-37 is a droid who serves as Lando's co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon. Another cool detail about her is that she built herself, which is why she's a combination of various droid models seen elsewhere in the Star Wars universe. Considering she's voiced by Waller-Bridge, she's hopefully also going to get in a few good jokes, too.

That leaves Dryden, the villain of the piece. According to the official Star Wars site, Dryden is the head of a group of criminals known collectively as Crimson Dawn. He's a ruthless villain, but he's far less single-minded than the likes of Vader, which could make for an interesting change of pace.

One thing is certain, all of these new characters sound and look intriguing. Fans will just have to wait until Solo hits the big screen to see if they live up to their potential.