50 Fun Facts About Han Solo

Who plays Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy?

Ford was a self-taught carpenter between acting jobs when Lucas cast him; he later reprised Han in the sequel trilogy too.

Who plays the young Han in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)?

More than 3,000 actors were seen for the part; Ford met Ehrenreich to offer advice before filming.

In Lucas's earliest screenplay, Han was a green-skinned, gilled alien of which race?

He was also a member of the Jedi Bendu; the next draft made him a bearded pirate before he became a James Dean-style pilot.

Which classic Hollywood star did Lucas use as a reference point for Han?

Lucas made the character human so his relationships with the other human leads could develop; Chewbacca became the alien sidekick.

Lucas initially resisted casting Ford because they had already worked together on which film?

Lucas preferred unknowns, so he asked Ford to read lines with other auditioners, then ended up casting him anyway.

In Star Wars (1977), Han is hired to fly Luke and Obi-Wan from Tatooine to which planet?

They arrive to find the planet already obliterated by the Death Star, and the Falcon is pulled aboard the station.

Which bounty hunter corners Han in the Mos Eisley cantina?

Paul Blake said the scene exists because an effects-heavy Jabba introduction was cut for budget; the Jabba scene returned in 1997.

What did the 1997 Special Edition change in the cantina confrontation?

Lucas said he wanted Han to be John Wayne, who lets the other man take the first shot; fans were not persuaded.

Lucas wore a "Han shot first" T-shirt on the set of which of his films?

He wore it again on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, while insisting the original cut no longer really existed.

Which word did the bounty hunter shout before firing in the 2019 Disney+ cantina edit?

Sebulba uses the same Huttese threat in The Phantom Menace; Paul Blake said he could not understand a word of it.

Asked in a 2014 Reddit AMA who shot first, what did Ford reply?

Legal scholar John P. Gross argued the same year that Greedo's threat would justify pre-emptive self-defence under US law.

Who plays Han's criminal mentor Tobias Beckett in Solo?

Bale had been in talks for the role; Harrelson revealed the character's name in March 2017, ending speculation he was Legends figure Garris Shrike.

Beckett, Han's mentor in Solo, was based on which literary character?

Jonathan Kasdan also cited Unforgiven, Heat, The Big Lebowski and Gangster No. 1 as influences on the script.

In Solo, who gives Han the surname "Solo"?

He gets the name for having no family when he enlists as a flight cadet, three years before being expelled for insubordination.

On which planet does Solo depict the 19-year-old Han living as an orphan?

The comic adaptation adds that he knew his father worked in the planet's shipyards.

Which Game of Thrones star plays Han's childhood love Qi'ra in Solo?

Tessa Thompson, Zoë Kravitz and Naomi Scott were among those considered before Clarke was cast in late 2016.

Who plays the young Lando opposite Ehrenreich's Han?

Billy Dee Williams met Glover to pass on advice; Glover deliberately pronounced the name "Han" the way Lucas does.

How did Han finally take ownership of the Millennium Falcon from Lando?

Lando cheated to win the first game; Han pocketed the hidden card before the rematch so the same trick could not work twice.

Which Fleabag creator voices Lando's droid co-pilot in Solo?

L3-37's consciousness is uploaded into the Falcon, retroactively explaining why C-3PO calls the ship's dialect peculiar in Empire.

Which directing duo was fired from Solo in June 2017 over "creative differences"?

Lucasfilm felt they were steering a comedy and encouraging too much improvisation; they kept executive producer credits.

Who took over directing Solo for the remaining shoot and five weeks of reshoots?

Howard had once turned down The Phantom Menace; he ended up reshooting around 70% of the film.

Under what working title did Solo begin filming at Pinewood in January 2017?

Internally the project had earlier been codenamed "Harry and the Boy" and was meant to follow The Force Awakens.

Roughly what was Solo's production budget, making it one of the priciest films ever?

It needed around $600 million to break even and grossed $393 million, the first Star Wars film to bomb.

Which John Williams piece serves as Han's theme in Solo?

John Powell composed the rest of the score and wove Williams' new theme in alongside motifs from the earlier films.

In the 1978 Holiday Special, Han celebrates Life Day on which planet?

Ford played Han in the live-action segments and voiced him in the animated one.

After freezing Han in carbonite, Vader hands him to which bounty hunter?

Leia confesses her love just before the freezing; a year later the slab is a decoration in Jabba's palace.

What rank has Han attained when he leads the shield-generator strike team?

He enlists a tribe of Ewoks to help, and the shield comes down in time for Lando to destroy the second Death Star.

Han's strike team disables the shield generator on which forest moon?

The reunion there closes the original trilogy with the celebration of the Empire's fall.

Where is Han betrayed to the Empire in The Empire Strikes Back?

Lucas's early outline had Han meeting a business leader who was like a stepfather; the finished film made it an old friend under duress.

Who kills Han in The Force Awakens?

Abrams cut an early draft in which Han survived and reconciled with Leia, feeling the death gave his son a path to rival Vader.

On which First Order superweapon does Han confront his son and die?

He, Chewbacca and Finn had landed to disable its shield and rescue Rey.

What happened to Han in an early draft of The Force Awakens?

Abrams felt the character was not moving the story forward that way; his death instead let Kylo Ren grow into a worthy successor to Vader.

Han's look in The Force Awakens was influenced by which True Grit character?

The nod is to the 2010 Coen brothers remake, with Jeff Bridges as the grizzled marshal.

Which character is the only one to pronounce "Han" the way George Lucas does?

Most characters say "Hahn"; others drift toward the Lucas pronunciation after the character arrives in Empire.

Ford wanted Lucas to kill off Han at the end of which film?

Ford argued it would have given the whole film a bottom; Lucas refused, and Han lived until 2015.

How was Ford injured on the set of The Force Awakens in June 2014?

The fractured ankle meant a two-month layoff and shooting him from the waist up for a while after he returned.

Which woman is introduced as Han's wife in Marvel's 2015 Star Wars comic?

It later turns out she married him as part of a scheme to swindle a crime lord.

In Star Wars Legends, what are the names of Han and Leia's twins?

A third child, Anakin, dies in Star by Star; Chewbacca dies saving him in Vector Prime.

Which Sith name does Jacen take in Legends' Legacy of the Force series?

He plunges the galaxy into civil war and Han disowns him; after his death Han and Leia adopt his daughter Allana.

Who designed the Millennium Falcon for the 1977 film?

He had about four weeks, and Lucas's only note was to think of a flying saucer, which he dodged with an offset cockpit and mandibles.

The Falcon's shape was reportedly based loosely on which food?

The cockpit was the olive on the side; the greenhouse-style window was likely inspired by a B-29 Superfortress.

The Falcon was redesigned because its first look resembled ships from which TV series?

The original elongated model was rescaled and reused as Princess Leia's ship, the Tantive IV.

The Falcon's hyperspace sound was built from the engine noise of which aircraft?

Ben Burtt layered two slightly out-of-sync tracks for a phasing effect, plus the hum of ILM's motion-control cooling fans.

In the non-canon comic Into the Great Unknown, who finds Han's skeleton aboard the Falcon?

Han and Chewbacca crash into the American northwest, and Ford's other hero turns up generations later.

Where did the American Film Institute rank Han on its list of greatest film heroes?

Empire magazine went further, naming him the fourth greatest film character of all.

Who is revealed as Dryden Vos's superior at the end of Solo?

Ray Park returned in the role with Sam Witwer's voice; Peter Serafinowicz had recorded the lines first and was replaced for continuity.

In Solo, Han pilots the Falcon through which dangerous, uncharted route to escape a blockade?

L3-37's navigational data, uploaded into the ship, is what gets them through.

In Solo, Beckett has Han thrown into a pit to be fed to whom?

Han can understand the prisoner's language, and the two escape together, the start of a very long partnership.

Who plays Han's Wookiee co-pilot in Solo (2018)?

The Finnish former basketball player had doubled for Mayhew in The Force Awakens before taking the role fully.

Early drafts of Episode III had a ten-year-old Han helping Yoda find whom?

Those scripts also had him raised by Chewbacca on Kashyyyk; concept art was drawn before Lucas cut the idea.