Alden Ehrenreich says he would like the Solo franchise to follow the Indiana Jones mold, making each film its own separate adventure. Forty years after Harrison Ford first added his roguish swagger to the Star Wars saga, Alden Ehrenreich takes over the role of Han Solo for a look at the formative years of the space pilot and smuggler. Solo: A Star Wars Story presents scenes from Han's history that are already iconic in the minds of fans, including the famous moment when he won the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian.
Re-imagining the character of Solo could have proven a perilous enterprise, but it seems Ron Howard and company have delivered the space adventure goods, if early reviews are any indication. With Solo poised to be another blockbuster for Disney and Lucasfilm, attention now turns to the future of the potential franchise. For his part, Ron Howard says there are no specific plans for future movies. However, star Alden Ehrenreich is signed up for three films, so we know the hope is that Solo will go on for awhile.
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Speaking exclusively to Screen Rant, Ehrenreich himself addressed the future of the Solo franchise and gave his suggestion for how the next movies should play out. The actor takes as his model another huge franchise also starring Harrison Ford:
Well, I think I just want to see more of his relationships with these characters. I think that would be really a lot of fun. And I think each being its own kind of adventure story and like almost the Indiana Jones mold would be pretty fricking cool.
Unlike the main Star Wars films which deal in sweeping three-film arcs, the Indiana Jones movies have always been true standalone adventures. Not tying themselves to a larger narrative afforded Steven Spielberg and company a certain freedom to leap around with each movie and change things up tone-wise. For instance, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually took place before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and featured a notably darker feel than the first film (much to the chagrin of many). It wasn't until Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with the return of Marion Ravenwood, that the franchise became overly-conscious of its past and became somewhat bogged down.
With Solo going back to well before the events of A New Hope, the freedom should be there for Disney and Lucasfilm to dream up a new story for each successive film, and not feel the need to deal in a over-all dramatic arcs. Star Wars of course has succeeded with its trilogy model, but not everything in the universe needs to adhere to that formula. If Alden Ehrenreich has his way, it sounds like Solo will stay away from the saga thing and engage in a little more fun space-hopping. Which frankly sounds like a perfect approach for the character.
