Solo: A Star Wars Story isn’t hoarding cash, but why?

Credit: Lucasfilm; from Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Did we actually need a Han Solo origin story?

Solo offered opportunities for actors to shine and extend the Star Wars universe. Alden Ehrenreich fit in as the younger Han Solo, Donald Glover brought his charm and charisma to Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke dazzled as Qi’ra. Each performance should help their respective careers, but it arguably happened in an unnecessary movie.

Disney is clearly trying to extend the story of the Star Wars universe or just trying to milk as much money as possible from the customers. So far, up until Solo, so good, and even with the Rogue one prequel, which preceded the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and provided the answers to what happened before the Skywalkers came together.

Was the same needed to talk about Han Solo’s development into the anti-hero Star Wars fans know and love? Well…

If Solo became a box office success, this would not become a conversation. Instead, the focus shifts toward how many films can develop from Solo? Here we are, though, with an underwhelming opening weekend and questions abound about Disney’s plans for more prequels that potentially shakes everything up.

Solo answered questions that Star Wars fans might not have needed to hear:

• How did Han become “Han Solo?”
• Who was Han’s original love of his life?
• How did Chewbacca receive his nickname?
• How is Darth Maul actually alive?
• How will Han meet Jabba the Hutt?

Were any of these actually a bad thing? No, but did anyone clamor for these answers, or the ones to other questions, beforehand? There’s a difference between answers on that and The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, which were 30 years in the making and had fans in question on what happened after the events of Return of the Jedi. Even the 10 years between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens was satisfactory.

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We know more on Han Solo the anti-hero, but was it actually desired to expand the Star Wars realm? That might have played a factor in the movie’s early disappointment, along with the non-Harrison Ford characterization of this famous sci-fi figure.