Glover, Ahmed and Dern win Emmys

Three Star Wars actors won big at the Emmys tonight. The upcoming Han Solo film’s Donald Glover took home two statues for Atlanta – lead actor in a comedy and directing in a comedy. Rogue One’s Riz Ahmed won as lead in a limited series for The Night of. And The Last Jedi’s Laura Dern took supporting actress in a limited series for Big Little Lies.

The night’s biggest genre winner was The Handmaid’s Tale. The dystopia won Best Drama Series and writing, along with lead and supporting wins for Elizabeth Moss and Ann Dowd. Anthology series Black Mirror also took two trophies for the episode “San Junipero.”

Han Solo and the Character Name Rumors

Making Star Wars has heard two names – both female – for the Han Solo standalone. One seems to be a puppet/voiced character (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, maybe?), while the other seems to be a major character with “top billing” – so likely Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton. That said, the names could be set pseudonyms.

→ Speaking of Clarke, she told the Los Angeles Daily News that talking about the Han movie “even scarier” than doing so for Game of Thrones.

io9’s Evan Narcisse makes the case that Donald Glover’s funk album proves he has the mindset to make Lando Calrissian his own.

Star Wars News Net has heard that they might be filming for three weeks on Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands.

→ Disney has released the schedule for their D23 Expo in July. We hope to learn a bit more about the Han film (and likely The Last Jedi) at the live-action film panel on Saturday, July 15.

Principal photography begins on Han Solo standalone, release date is still May

StarWars.com has annouced that principal photography has begin on the Han Solo standalone, along with confirming rumored cast members Thandie Newton and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It’s also the first time they’ve mentioned the release date in quite a while – and surprisingly, it’s still May 25, 2018.

If it does indeed remain May, this would be our first non-December release since Disney bought the franchise, and could signal a permanent move back to spring for Episode IX and beyond. The May release date will put Han just on the heels of Episode VII, The Last Jedi, which is out December 15, 2017.

The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca along with Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are directing, from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan.

Han Solo standalone begins filming

With a tweet from co-director Chris Miller captioned “Han shot first,” we learn that the Han Solo standalone has begun shooting. The slate says ‘Red Cup,’ the film’s shooting title. (Solo… Get it?)

The movie stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, plus Emilia Clarke and Woody Harrelson in yet-unknown roles. Posts like these from directors are usually followed by a StarWars.com announcement which may reveal further info (like, perhaps, a new release date?) so we’ll keep any eye out.

It’s official: Donald Glover is the new Lando Calrissian

donald-gloverLucasfilm has announced that Donald Glover will be playing the young Lando Calrissian in 2018’s Han Solo standalone. StarWars.com says the film will “depicts Lando in his formative years as a scoundrel on the rise in the galaxy’s underworld.” Glover joins Alden Ehrenreich as Han.

“We’re so lucky to have an artist as talented as Donald join us,” said directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. “These are big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape, and this one fits him perfectly, which will save us money on alterations. Also, we’d like to publicly apologize to Donald for ruining Comic-Con for him forever.”

The Han movie, which is still untitled, is due out in 2018. Rumor has it that a third major role, a woman, has a shortlist.