Many people were surprised to see that, on the one year anniversary of the movie’s release, fans were rallying support to get a sequel made to Solo: A Star Wars Story. The hashtag #MakeSolo2Happen quickly gained moment throughout the Twitterverse and it got even a few naysayers thinking about the possibility.
A lot of the original cast and crew have, despite all the well-documented creative differences, been very vocal about their eagerness to return to a galaxy far, far away. So here are 5 things that fans want to see the most in a Solo sequel (and 5 things they’d rather not see at all).
Want: Enfys Nest
The mysterious pint-sized leader of the burgeoning rebel group was one of the biggest twists of Solo: A Star Wars Story and maybe its most original. Spun as marauders and cutthroat thieves by Woody Harrelson’s actual-cutthroat Tobias Beckett, the group was revealed to be a team of resistance fighters made up of victims of the Crimson Dawn syndicate and lead by a young girl who inherited the role from her mother.
Han Solo supports her by gifting the group a large quantity of highly-coveted stolen space fuel before they go their separate ways but there’s no reason that Han couldn’t become more indirectly involved with the group’s growth. With the ascendancy of his son (Ben, A.K.A. Kylo) in the new trilogy, there’s an argument that Han Solo is more important to the shaping of the Star Wars universe than any other hero in the original trilogy.
Don't Want: A gigantic budget
People like high production value in their action/adventure movies, there’s no doubt about that and nobody’s asking for a micro-budget Star Wars drama. But the main reason that Solo fans have to fight uphill to establish the movie as a success is due to it being a financial disaster. For whatever reason, Solo came in close to a billion dollars short of the previous Star Wars movie.
No one was expecting it to outdo its predecessor; however, as a result of cost overages caused by the film’s infamous production troubles, Solo turned out to be a huge loss for the studios. One of the movie’s screenwriters, Jonathan Kasdan, has talked about his desire to get the cast and crew back together if Disney could organize something with a smaller budget and fewer box office expectations placed on it. Most fans seem to agree that less could equal more.
Want: Darth Maul
The big reveal of Solo, Darth Maul was generally considered to be well and truly dead in the movies up until this point. The character was a big part of other Star Wars media, especially the Clone Wars and Rebels animated TV shows, but it was still a surprise to see him alive in the somewhat more grounded live-action movie universe after being literally chopped in half and never spoken of again.
His appearance in Solo should be some indication as to just how much of an impact the character made, not just in his one original film (in which he does kind of steal the show) but also those TV series. It was revealed in an interview with Collider that original voice actor Peter Serafinowicz was hired to voice Darth Maul again, and recorded his lines, only for producers to opt for TV series voice actor Sam Witwer instead.
Don't Want: Origin Stories Behind Han’s stuff
There are many “fan service” moments in Solo. Fans got to see the first meeting between Han and Chewie, Han seeing the Millenium Falcon for the first time, the story behind his mirror dice, the origin of his blaster, and even his own name. You can argue whether any of this matters or impacts the story, but most people seem to feel that it was, at the very least, enough.
Nobody has been left with a burning desire to learn how Han Solo got his vest. No one cares about who installed the turret that we see in A New Hope onto the Millenium Falcon. We don’t need to see Lando Calrissian becoming the administrator of Cloud City. There are some things that are just overkill.
Want: Lando
Probably one of the best pieces of casting in modern movie history, Donald Glover lights up the movie in a way that few actors ever could. One of the few characters cunning enough to keep up with Han Solo, the quick-witted Lando Calrissian is always at the top of fans’ must-see lists whenever an appropriate opportunity presents itself.
Glover not only provided an inimitable source of comedy throughout the film, but he also enhanced Alden Ehrenreich’s performance as Han Solo too. The pair's verbal sparring produces some of the movie's most entertaining moments while the competitive brotherly love between the two could easily serve as a sequel’s main emotional center. The whole sequel could just be about him, really.
Don't Want: “Han shot first”
Solo did generally okay with throwbacks. Some bits and pieces were a tad over the line for some people but a decent balance between new ideas and nostalgia was struck. A good representation of this would be at the close of the movie, where Han Solo enacts the devout Star Wars credo that he always shoots first by, well, shooting someone first. They nodded to it without making it painfully obvious.
If you’re unaware, the rule stems from one of the more egregious alterations made to the Star Wars Special Editions from the late 90s. During Han Solo’s introduction on Tatooine, he becomes cornered by mob enforcer Greedo and, in the original film, shoots him from underneath the table. It was a defining character moment for the lovable rogue and totally ruined when Lucas added a hilariously inaccurate shot from Greedo’s blaster, a moment before Han shoots, to make the act appear more provoked.
Want: Qi’ra
After the highly-contentious end of Game of Thrones, there’s an undeniably big Emilia Clarke-shaped hole in many of our lives. There was another attempt to utilize her talents in another sci-fi franchise (which most, including her, would rather just forget) but, next to Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, Qi’ra is probably the most beloved character of Clarke’s career so far.
The street-smart survivor is the only member of the film’s heist crew who actually gets what they want. She kills the villain, rides off into the sunset and the future that her story sets up is by far the most unknown and the most interesting. Will she turn good? Will she completely embrace the dark side? Is there life for her character in future Star Wars episodes? They’re all tantalizing questions that a sequel would be foolish not to answer.
Don't Want: Young Luke
All in all, people seem to agree that the producers did a pretty good job of casting younger versions of such iconic characters. Fans have been eager about the idea of Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover returning in other Star Wars projects, if not their own movies. Still, they should not push it.
There’s little chance of ever casting an actor to play young Luke Skywalker without drawing comparisons to Jake Lloyd’s much-maligned performance as a young Anakin and, as much as people love to see Luke, there’s no justifiable reason to put him in the story. It would be one throwback too many.
Want: The Hutt job
Though famous galactic mob boss Jabba the Hutt is only indirectly referenced in Solo, the end of the movie establishes a more concrete link between Jabba and Han. Prior to leaving Han to face mob boss Dryden Vos alone, Beckett tells him about a job on Tatooine that’s being put together.
It’s odd that Beckett would mention this at all (considering that he’s not really leaving and is intending to double-cross Han a few moments later) but it’s quite clearly implied that the job that he’s talking about would be for the Hutt Cartel (which controls that part of the galaxy), which ultimately gets Han into hot water during the beginning of A New Hope. What the job could end up being, and how it goes wrong, is the fun part!
Many writers have imagined the events in other forms of media but Lucasfilm has been quite forthcoming about the Expanded Universe being mostly disregarded by the new movies. So there’s a universe of possibilities to explore!
Don't Want: Actors Brought Back To Life
It’s great seeing some of our favorite characters come back to life on the big screen, nobody’s denying that. Joonas Suotamo’s tenure as Chewbacca, taking over from original actor Peter Mayhew, has been one of the more successful aspects of the new slate of movies. That being said, seeing a beloved character revived through the power of movie magic is not the same as seeing an actor that you love coming back through the power of movie magic. There was somewhat of a furor when Lucasfilm made the decision to bring back the character of Grand Moff Tarkin, from the original Star Wars, in their first standalone venture Rogue One.
Unlike Chewbacca, Tarkin was a human character, played by the legendary Peter Cushing, and his resurrection was the result of placing a kind of digital mask over a stand-in. The problem being that Cushing died over 20 years before the movie came out and would, therefore, have been very likely unaware that it was even possible for his likeness to be used in this way. While an impressive technical feat, bringing people back from the dead without their express consent is just a step too far for many people and, even though Lucasfilm stuck to their guns regarding the decision, they haven’t done it since and most fans would like to keep it that way.