A Deleted ‘Star Wars’ Prequel Scene Almost Made ‘Solo’ Redundant
George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels were ... well, they exist, and there are plenty of things about them that are great. One thing that would not have been great, though, is plot detail that Lucas ended up cutting out, which would have done away with any reason to have a Han Solo origin movie.
According to Inverse, a draft of the script for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith had a 10-year-old Han, who in this version was raised by the Wookiees, found a transmitter hidden in a crashed droid after the Battle of Kashyyyk and presented it to Yoda, which helped Obi-Wan locate General Grievous on Utapau. If this subplot had stayed in the movie, it would have veered far, far away from what had been established in the Expanded Universe novels (though those are no longer canon anyway) and would have made an origin movie for Han much different, if not completely redundant. It would have also drastically changed the relationship between Han and Chewbacca — from a couple of grumpy lads scooting around the galaxy stealing stuff, to an adoptive son and his father figure doing crimes together. Awkward, to say the least.
Since none of that happened in the movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story steers closer to what we already know has been established about the legendary smuggler. We’ll see him meet Chewie and his frenemy Lando Calrissian for the first time, and we’ll witness the famed Kessel Run and that Sarlacc game with which Han won his favorite spaceship. Solo hits theaters May 25.