Han Solo, played by
Harrison Ford, is a fictional smuggler and
"reckless mercenary" in the
Star
Wars franchise. Introduced in the film
Star Wars Episode IV: A New
Hope (1977), Solo and his
Wookiee
first mate,
Chewbacca (
Peter
Mayhew), become involved in the
Rebel
Alliance against the evil
Galactic
Empire. Over the course of the
Star Wars franchise,
Solo becomes a chief figure in the Alliance and succeeding galactic
governments.
Star Wars creator
George Lucas described Solo as "a loner who
realizes the importance of being part of a group and helping for
the common good." The
American
Film Institute ranked Solo as the fourteenth-greatest film
hero.
Concept and development
Solo was originally conceived as a "hulking green alien"
Jedi, and later as a flamboyantly-dressed and burly
Corellian. Parts of his character were taken from various early
drafts of the Star Wars script featuring
Luke Starkiller's older brother
Deak Starkiller. The third
Star
Wars draft presented Solo in his filmed form.
Lucas asked Ford, whom he knew from their work in
American Graffiti (1973), to read
lines opposite actors auditioning for the roles of
Luke Skywalker and
Princess Leia Organa. Reading the lines
made Ford familiar with the character, and Lucas cast him over
other candidates such as
Nick Nolte,
Kurt Russell, and
Christopher Walken. When neither Ford nor
director Irvin Kershner were happy with Solo's
scripted "I love you, too" response to Leia's declaration of love
in
Star
Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Kershner prompted
Ford to draw upon his familiarity with Solo to improvise. Kershner
agreed that Ford's line -- "I know" -- was exactly what Solo would
say.
Ford asked Lucas to have Solo die from the frozen carbonite in
The Empire Strikes Back or
Star Wars Episode VI:
Return of the Jedi; Ford said he believed that letting
Solo die would strengthen the story.
Return of the Jedi
screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan concurred, saying it should
happen near the beginning of
Return of the Jedi to instill
doubt as to whether the others would survive, but Lucas was
adamantly against it. Although never filmed,
Lucasfilm generated
concept
art of a young Solo helping the Wookiees in
Star Wars Episode
III: Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Lucas later said, "Han and Leia probably did get married . . . They
settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little
house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking
burgers on the grill."
Depiction
At the beginning of
A New Hope, Solo and Chewbacca are
desperate to pay off a debt to
Jabba the
Hutt. Solo accepts a charter to transport
Obi-Wan Kenobi (
Alec
Guinness), Luke Skywalker (
Mark
Hamill),
C-3PO (
Anthony Daniels) and
R2-D2 (
Kenny Baker) to
Alderaan; when they arrive, they find
Alderaan has been destroyed by the
Death
Star, and the
Falcon is captured. Enticed by the
likelihood of a substantial reward, Solo and Chewbacca help
Skywalker rescue Princess Leia (
Carrie
Fisher), held captive aboard the station. After escaping and
delivering Skywalker, Leia and the
droids to
the Rebels, Solo and Chewbacca receive payment for their services
and depart; Solo believes the Rebels' plan to attack the Death Star
is "suicide". However, Solo has a change of heart and returns to
aid in the attack, ultimately allowing Skywalker to fire the shot
that destroys the Death Star.
When the Empire attacks the Rebels' base on
Hoth in
The Empire Strikes Back, Solo
transports Chewbacca, Leia, and C-3PO to
Cloud City for safety and repairs to the
Falcon. The bounty hunter
Boba
Fett (
Jeremy Bulloch) tracks the
Falcon to Cloud City, and
Darth
Vader (
David Prowse/
James Earl Jones) forces Cloud City's
administrator,
Lando Calrissian
(
Billy Dee Williams), to help
capture Solo. Leia confesses her love of Solo shortly before he is
frozen in
carbonite for delivery to Jabba
the Hutt. Although Calrissian helps free Vader's other captives,
they do not succeed in releasing Solo. However, Leia infiltrates
Jabba's palace at the beginning of
Return of the Jedi and
frees Solo. Reunited with the Rebels, Solo rejoins the Alliance and
is commissioned as a
general. Along with
Leia and Chewbacca, he leads a team in deactivating the shields
protecting the Empire's second Death Star. Aided by the indigenous
Ewoks, Solo and the Rebels succeed in
overcoming the Imperial garrison, allowing the Rebels' space forces
to destroy the Empire's battlestation.
Brian Daley wrote a series of novels,
the first published in 1979, exploring Solo and Chewbecca's
smuggling adventures, and
Ann C.
Crispin's
Han Solo Trilogy
(1997-1998) further develops the character's backstory. Crispin's
books depict Solo as a beggar and
pickpocket for much of his youth.
Han Solo escapes from Trader's Luck and begins life on his own,
apart from Garris Shrike's band of space gypsies.He was supposed to
be raised in a family of Corellian
space
gypsies. He becomes a pilot and, in the process of undermining
a religious fraud, frees and falls in love with Bria Tharen.
Tharen, however, disappears soon before Solo joins the Imperial
Navy. Solo loses his commission and is
cashiered when he refuses an order to
skin Chewbacca, who had commandeered a ship
carrying Wookiee children destined for slavery; Chewbacca, in turn,
swears a life-debt to Solo. The two become a prominent smuggling
team, and help repel an Imperial blockade of a Hutt moon. Solo soon
thereafter wins the
Millennium Falcon from Lando
Calrissian in a
card tournament.
Tharen, who has become a Rebel agent, reappears and asks for Solo,
Chewbacca, and Calrissian's help in attacking a slave colony. After
succeeding, Tharen's troopers steal the smuggler's valuables to aid
the Rebel Alliance. Desperate to recoup their losses, Solo and
Chewbacca accept a smuggling job from Jabba the Hutt. However,
Imperials intercept the
Falcon, forcing the smugglers to
jetison their cargo. This loss is the debt Solo and Chewbacca owe
the Hutt crime lord at the beginning of
A New Hope.
Solo plays a central role in the years following Emperor
Palpatine's death in
Return of the Jedi.
In
The Courtship of
Princess Leia (1995), he resigns his commission to pursue
Leia, whom he eventually marries. Han and Leia have three children
together: twins
Jaina and
Jacen and their younger brother,
Anakin. Chewbacca dies saving Anakin's life in
Vector Prime (1999). Solo
takes his companion's death hard, sinking into
alcoholism and
depression. He takes his anger and
grief out on his family, alienating them and
returning to his loner lifestyle. In
Star by Star (2001), Anakin dies as well,
compounding Han's despair. By the end of the series, however, he
accepts Anakin's and Chewbacca's deaths and repairs his
relationship with his family. In the
Legacy of the Force series, Jacen
falls to the dark side of the Force, eventually becoming the
Sith lord Darth Caedus. Although Solo
disowns Jacen, he and Leia
adopt Jacen's daughter, Allana, after Jacen's
death.
Influence and critical reaction
Solo is a reckless smuggler with a
sarcastic
wit; he is "a very practical guy" and considers
himself "a materialist". However, the adventures in the first
Star Wars movie evoke his compassion, a trait "he didn't
know he possessed."
Prince of
Persia producer Ben Mattes explained that their
"inspiration was anything Harrison Ford has ever done: Indiana
Jones, Han Solo."
The Japanese
manga and anime anti-hero
Space Adventure Cobra has been
compared by reviewers to Solo. In preparing to play
James T. Kirk for
the 2009 Star Trek film,
Chris Pine drew inspiration from Ford's
depictions of Solo and
Indiana Jones,
highlighting their humor and "accidental hero" traits.
Merchandising
Solo has been merchandised in multiple media, including
action figures,
video
games, and other collectibles. A Han Solo action figure with
"human proportions" was released in 1977 for
A New Hope,
while a figure created for the films' mid-1990s re-release is
"unrealistically muscled."
See also
References
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