Warning: major spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is a lot more than just a Han prequel - it sets up several exciting Star Wars spinoff movies to come in the future.

Solo probably looks and feels the most like what everyone was expecting when Disney and Lucasfilm first announced that they'd be producing a separate track of spin-off movies set in a galaxy, far, away: a fill-in prequel starring younger versions of familiar characters, set to classic-sounding music and full of callbacks (or, rather, deliberate foreshadows) to the original series. But unlike standalone war-drama Rogue One, which made a show of obliterating it's entire new cast and capping things off with a sly transition into the opening moments of Episode IV, the Han Solo origin feature seems poised to set up a whole slew of potential stories-to-come of its own.

Related: 10 Craziest Solo: A Star Wars Story Spoilers

The most obvious contender is a Solo 2 of some description, given how Alden Ehrenreich's version of the smuggler is still a long way from Harrison Ford, and with the actor on a three-movie contract that's definitely possible. However, there are some more interesting - and probably exciting - options too.

Lando

The most obvious, of course, is the prospect of a feature for Han's on-again/off-again frenemy Lando Calrissian. Already iconic as one of the most complex figures of the Original Trilogy and the franchise's most prominent black character for an unfortunately lengthy period of time ("I think he might be only Black guy in the galaxy!", quipped a character in an infamous Family Guy send-up of The Empire Strikes Back), he's played in Solo by currently ultra-hot actor/producer/musician Donald Glover (late of Atlanta and "This is America" in his Childish Gambino persona) and is already being tipped as among the next most-likely characters to be granted a big starring role.

Lando: A Star Wars Story certainly makes sense, given that the whole of Hollywood has been hot to sign the quixotic Glover (a "geek culture" star since Community) to a big franchise deal for years and the post-Black Panther/Wonder Woman "gold rush" by studios to find the next blockbuster property targeting previously under-represented demographics (similar shockwaves are expected from the impending release of the glitzy rom-com Crazy Rich Asians later this year). Plus, apart from business concerns, Glover's conception of the character as a slick, swaggering, more-than-a-little-vain charmer makes for a compelling departure for a franchise that otherwise has concerned itself with a gritty working-class/military vibe.

Boba Fett & Jabba the Hutt Spinoffs

Jabba the Hutt and Boba Fett

The other two crime characters most linked to Han aren't present in Solo: A Star Wars Story, but Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt do have an off-screen presence. But, as two character long-discussed for the standalone treatment (Boba is finally getting his own movie from James Mangold), Solo definitely lays the groundwork.

Jabba's presence is easy to discern. He's the "big-shot gangster putting together a crew" Beckett tells Han about, and when the Millennium Falcon jumps to hyperspace at the very end of Solo, that meeting is inevitable: next time we see Han and Chewie, they will have tussled with Jabba the Hutt. It was reported last year that a Jabba movie was being considered by Lucasfilm, although no word has been heard since and the reference in Solo is admittedly slight.

More direct is Boba Fett, which now has James Mangold attached as director. This film has been in development since the early days of the Disney-owned Lucasfilm, and does get some clues dropped in Solo: we hear of characters linked to Boba in intimate ways (fellow bounty hunter Bossk and adoptive mother Aurra Sing was killed by Beckett) that perfectly lead-in to an appearance.

Page 2: Darth Maul and Crime in The Galaxy

Qi'ra Betrays Han in Solo A Star Wars Story

Crime in the Galaxy

In addition to Jabba and Fett, several new (or relatively-new) characters and factions also make appearances in Solo, including the criminal faction Crimson Dawn, Enfys Nest and the Cloud-Riders (who fill the role of an Indian raiding-party in Solo's thematic parallels to the tropes of Hollywood Westerns) and Woody Harrelson's Tobias Beckett; an aging outlaw who serves as Han's mentor in space-frontier criminality and (as fits the characterization) is implied to have lived a colorful life of his own. We're also afforded a look at the daily grind of Imperial soldiers who aren't even considered important enough to get Storm Trooper armor, and the day-to-day workings of the Spice Mines of Kessel.

Probably the most talked-about spin-off prospects coming out of Solo will center on Q'ira, a female lead played by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke. She's a central figure in Han's story despite never having been heard from before in the franchise, a childhood friend and would-be romantic interest whom he was forced to abandon to escape a life of urchin street-slavery and whom his outlaw ambitions were supposed to be leading him back to "rescue." Instead, she re-enters the story on her own unexpectedly; having "escaped" on her own terms by (seemingly) becoming a feared femme-fatale servant of Crimson Dawn leader Dryden Vos.

Related: Solo: A Star Wars Story's Ending Explained - How It Changes Han Forever

Obviously, since we know where Han ends up by the time the main Star Wars Saga gets going, this storyline can't end "happily" for them; and Clarke is indeed saddled with the task of slinking through the second act of Solo: A Star Wars Story practically begging someone to please, please ask her about the Very Dark Secret she's hiding for a third act surprise. At first, it appears she might be "only" more committed to Crimson Dawn than she lets on (perhaps she's the real power, not Dryden?,) and there are signs that she's been through a more interesting life than anyone suspects to get where she is - like, for example, being a master of Teräs Käsi. But it's not until Solo's climax is winding down that the pieces are fully revealed... if only to the audience and not the other characters: Q'ira is actually an interloper into Crimson Dawn from a more sinister entity - an agent of former Sith Lord Darth Maul.

Maul

Darth Maul in Star Wars Phantom Menace

While the notion that Maul indeed survived his apparent death in The Phantom Menace won't be "news" to fans who've followed other canonical tangents of the Star Wars mythos since, Solo marks his first appearance in live-action in almost 20 years. And while the connection between this powerful figure and Q'ira raises plenty of spin-off worthy questions about her alone (is she an apprentice? Is she Force-sensitive? How and when did they become acquainted?) Star Wars fans will almost certainly seize on the prospect of whether this means the iconic Sith Lord will be seen again as the franchise fills in the gaps of its own narrative.

Granted, Maul's ending has already been written in Star Wars: Rebels, and appearances elsewhere have established a rough outline of a life lived on the fringes of the major action between the prequels and that point. But with Ray Park evidently willing to step back into the makeup chair (and Sam Witwer enter the recording studio) it's hard not to wonder where he might appear next, either as a main antagonist or part of the storyline. He would easily fit into one of the aforementioned films, or could he even be worthy of his own feature? Could he be an offscreen presence in the much-discussed Kenobi - and could Q'ira turn up as a potential antagonist (given that Maul and Obi-Wan can't canonically meet again until the events of Rebels)?

-

All such things are, as ever, speculation. But what becomes noteworthy is that Solo's ability to raise such prospects stands in amusing contrast to the longstanding criticism that such spin-offs innately make the franchise itself "smaller" by repeatedly focusing on a relatively small number of characters repeatedly bumping into each other across the galaxy. In the end, how different or diverse the Star Wars Stories become will be dependent on Disney and Lucasfilm's approach to each new venture, but Solo at least points the way to an emergent bounty of options.

Next: Star Wars Timeline: When Is Solo Set & How Old Is Han?

Key Release Dates