Solo book lineup features novels from Daniel José Older, Rae Carson

The Solo book lineup is here, and it’s extensive. All the usual suspects are here: Novels from Del Rey and Disney Lucasfilm Press, comics from Marvel and IDW, the standard non-fiction… And a whole lot of kids stuff, because Star Wars. It’s all over at Entertainment Weekly, but here are my highlights.

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Emilia Clarke on Solo: Qi’ra and Han “grew up together”

Emilia Clarke gives Entertainment Weekly some context on Qi’ra, her character in Solo: A Star Wars Story, including that there’s a “romantic side of things.” (Sigh, so much for all those half-sister theories.) But mainly, that her and Han go way back.

There is a thing throughout the relationship you just can’t put your finger on. And that’s Qi’ra. Every time you think you have got her number you realize you haven’t at all. [Laughs] Which is really hard to play. The goal is that the shadow of Qi’ra is there in Han as a character that we know. This girl is another texture that makes up who he is when we first meet him.

How Harrison Ford pitched in on Solo

Harrison Ford may have finished up his run as Han Solo, but he did have some input on Solo, in the form of insight on the character.

“What [Ford] did so beautifully for Alden was he talked a lot about what he remembered when he first read Star Wars, and what George had done with Han. Who the character was and the conversations he had for so many years with George about how that character developed,” [Kathleen] Kennedy says. “He gave Alden that kind of insight which was invaluable. There were several times in the course of making the movie where Alden would actually recount some of the things that Harrison had pointed out. I think that was really, really helpful to him.”

We also get confirmation that Solo is keeping Han’s backstory as an orphan, and how that played into his bond with Rey in The Force Awakens.

First Solo details from Entertainment Weekly

Solo gets its first Entertainment Weekly cover, and a handful of new images. Let the feeding frenzy begin! Here’s what we’ve learned:

→ The train-thing is called The Conveyex, and Han (with Chewie!) is indeed trying to steal something from it.

→ We still don’t have a last name for Qi-ra (Emilia Clarke) but she has known Han “longer than anyone.”

→ The droid L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is Lando’s sidekick. Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and Val (Thandie Newton) are “career crooks,” while Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) is a crime boss.

→ So much for my theory that the clean Millennium Falcon is a flashback scene – There’s a picture of Han on it with Beckett and Chewie.

Mimban confirmed, and it is… Muddy.

Coming up: Interviews with Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover and Clarke, more details about the Falcon.

First promo image of Solo leaks?

A promo image for Solo has emerged from the wilds of the internet, giving us our (presumed) first non-fuzzy look at Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo, Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian, whoever Emilia Clarke is playing and the Millennium Falcon’s new/old paint job. Lucasfilm has asked at least one site to take it down, so chances are it’s legit, though a Lucasfilm rep told /Film that they didn’t create it.

The images – one is an exact mirror of the other – appear to be sourced from a Russian PDF, because of course. /Film has a rough translation of the text.

Word on the street is we can expect official promotion for the film to start soon.