Who's who in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'
No major spoilers here, but this story does discuss plot points previously revealed in other marketing materials, stories, and interviews. Proceed at your own risk.
From a certain point of view, Solo is an old Star Wars story: It's set way in the past, before Han ever even met Luke and Leia.
But for our purposes, it's a new one. By that, we mean it tells a tale we've never heard before, set on planets we've never seen, involving people we've never met and unfamiliar versions of people we have.
Which means even if you're a longtime Star Wars fan, you might find yourself watching the Solo trailers and wondering who the hell all these folks are. So here's a handy rundown of who's who in Solo – new and old characters alike.
Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich)
This guy needs no introduction, unless you've never seen a Star Wars movie before, in which case we're kind of surprised you're interested in Solo to begin with. Welcome to the fandom, we guess!
But this Han is a little different from the one we've loved over the decades. Solo takes place about a decade before A New Hope, so the Han we encounter here is a scrappy kid from Corellia who turns to a life of crime after failing to make it as an Imperial pilot.
In other words, he's not that scoundrel with a heart of gold just yet – but this film brings him one step closer to his inevitable destiny.
Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo)
Another familiar face, this Wookiee is a spry 190 years old when we meet him in Solo. He and Han meet for the first time, but under dire circumstances, and the two don't exactly bond right away. Expect to see a less cutesy, more action-oriented Chewie this time around.
Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover)
Yep, you know this guy too. And you'll recognize a lot of his signature traits reflected in Solo: his slick sophistication, his dramatic sense of style, his fondness for space capes.
When Han first meets him in Solo, Lando's already a smuggler turned gambler; sabacc is his game of choice. The Millennium Falcon is his most prized possession, and L3-37 (more about her later) is his most trusted companion. He is supposedly pansexual, though you wouldn't be able to tell from the movie.
Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke)
Okay, now we're getting into some new names. Qi'ra is Han's childhood friend and love interest. Like him, she grew up on the hardscrabble streets of Corellia, and like him, she's a survivor. As she says in the trailer, she might be the only person who knows who he really is.
Nowadays, she serves as the "top lieutenant" to crime boss Dryden Vos (see below). If Qi'ra seems a bit mysterious, that's by design – she's described as the femme fatale of the film. Gotta wonder what secrets she's hiding up those elegant sleeves....
Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson)
Tobias is the savvy and seasoned leader of a small criminal team specializing in heists. He becomes a sort of mentor figure to Han – screenwriters Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan have compared him to Long John Silver in Treasure Island.
Val (Thandie Newton)
Val's a no-nonsense badass involved with Tobias and his crew, but she's more suspicious of this Han guy than Tobias is. In fact, one of their very first encounters (as seen in the clip above) involves her threatening to gun him down. Seeing as shooting is her specialty, we're guessing she means it, too.
Rio Durant (Jon Favreau)
Rio's another of Tobias' team, a four-armed Ardennian pilot described as "good-natured." Hey, someone's gotta bring some laid-back cheer to this tough-as-nails crew.
L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge)
Every Star Wars movie needs a good droid, and Solo has L3. She is Lando's copilot, navigator, and steadfast partner – Donald Glover describes her as "the only person who is completely honest to him all the time" – but not, crucially, his property.
Instead, L3 is a "self-made" droid with no owner, who's built herself out of parts from other droids. That independence is a crucial part of her identity, as L3 cares passionately about droid rights.
Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany)
Dryden, Qi'ra's boss, is the big bad of the piece. As the leader of a criminal syndicate known as Crimson Dawn, he's known for both his ruthlessness and his taste for luxury. In contrast to our scruffy-looking hero, he's all about class and sophistication.
Topics Star Wars
