How George Lucas helped out on a Solo scene

An early report on Solo gave us the impression that George Lucas actually helped direct a small part of the film, now the fuller part of the story can be told. Here’s the scene – of which we’ve seen a brief preview of in commercials – and George Lucas’s part in it, from Variety’s cover story.

The hand of George Lucas, too, happens to be present in the film, in a romantically charged scene between Ehrenreich and Clarke staged in Lando’s cape closet. There was a beat when Han takes Qi’ra’s cloak, hangs it up and moves on to his next bit of business. But Lucas had a note, if he could be so bold.

“He said, ‘You know, Han wouldn’t bother to hang it up,’” Howard says. “And then he sort of did it. George became Han Solo for a second. The body language was there and the attitude. Not only was it a nice accent on the scene, but it was also a reminder that George created this character and really understood him. He was so reluctant [to offer his opinion], and yet the choice was so right that it was fun to use it.” (Neither Lucas nor Ford was made available for comment.)

There’s plenty more in the article – the official line on the director swap, among other things. We also learn that Harrison Ford (!) has seen the movie twice (!!!) so far.