How Solo can tie into Star Wars Episode IX

They may take place many years apart, but Solo and Star Wars Episode IX can still share a lot of common ground.

Part of what makes the new canon so fascinating is how everything is connected. Whether it’s a film, television show, book, comic, or video game, there are always connections to other characters and stories in the Star Wars universe.

Despite Solo: A Star Wars Story taking place ten years before A New Hope and the sequel trilogy taking place a few decades later, there is still ample opportunity for Solo to tie in with Episode IX. After all, regardless of the different time periods, the first standalone film Rogue One connected to The Last Jedi with the Resistance’s flagship named the Raddus after Admiral Raddus in honor of his service during the Battle of Scarif.

Episode IX is confirmed to feature Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian. He’s sure to see and maybe even pilot the Millennium Falcon, reunited after years apart. Lando’s relationship with the ship was already established in the original trilogy; Solo just developed it further.

More from Editorial

• How animation changed Star Wars: Ewoks and Droids
• The Acolyte might change Star Wars storytelling
• No Star Wars for Feige, and I’m ok with that.
• 3 major ways the Star Wars Holiday Special changed canon
• If Jon Favreau remakes the Holiday Special, it needs to star Peli Motto

An emotional reunion

The real connective tissue between Solo and Episode IX with this reunion is Lando getting a chance to talk with L3-37 again. Solo revealed that L3 was uploaded into the Millennium Falcon as the ship’s navigational system during the Kessel Run. She has served in that capacity ever since with the official Star Wars Twitter page even confirming that C-3PO is referring to her when he speaks to the Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.

Lando talking with L3 aboard the Falcon would be heartwarming. As cool and suave as Lando likes to be, that attitude shattered when L3 was shot in Solo and she perished in his arms. In a similar manner, no matter how cool and suave he may seem to the new generation characters in Episode IX, he’s going to be hurting on the inside from the losses of Han and so many others.

Communicating with L3 could prove to be incredibly comforting and help give him the strength he needs to lead the Resistance against the First Order, even without longtime friends by his side and having to take up arms against Ben Solo who as a young boy affectionately called him “Unca Wanwo.”

The crime syndicates

Solo: A Star Wars Story

With a story entrenched in the criminal underworld, the crime syndicates served as the primary foes of Solo. These organizations were allowed to exist during the Empire’s reign largely because they could provide the Empire with invaluable resources like coaxium. After the first Death Star was destroyed and the Empire found itself vulnerable, it relied on such organizations as Darth Vader worked with Jabba the Hutt so the Empire could regain the resources necessary to rebuild its strength.

The Empire coexisted with crime syndicates, but it’s mostly unclear at this point how powerful and present these organizations are in the galaxy during the sequel trilogy, and moreover what kind of relationship they have with the First Order.

The Force Awakens did feature Kanjiklub and the Guavian Death Gang, both crime organizations eager to get their revenge against Han Solo after he swindled them. Bala-Tik–the leader of the Guavian Death Gang–did contact the First Order to let them know that BB-8 was on board the Millennium Falcon.

The Poe Dameron comics showed the pilot encountering Grakkus the Hutt. Grakkus and Agent Terex of the First Order had a deal with one another, but it was later broken. They simply had something the other needed. Beyond that there’s no hint of a larger sense of loyalty between the First Order and the Hutts.

With Maul gone for many years by the time of Episode IX it’s safe to assume that Crimson Dawn is no more. Organizations like the Pyke Syndicate and Black Sun are a different story, though. If these groups are still around and powerful, they could make all the difference in the war between the Resistance and the First Order in terms of resources and soldiers.

Bala-Tik and what’s left of the Guavian Death Gang and Kanjiklub could return in Episode IX as allies of the First Order while other crime syndicates may side with the Resistance. In fact, Lando or Maz Kanata might even help bring some of those groups into the fold.

Solo may not be the highest-grossing or most popular Star Wars film of all-time. It’s still an important and quality film, though. It deserves to connect with Episode IX, especially when there’s so much opportunity for meaningful tie-ins.

Would you like to see Solo connect to Episode IX? Let us know in the comments below!