Is Emilia Clarke coming back to Star Wars?

When I went to the theater to see Solo: A Star Wars Story, I was not expecting to meet Qi’ra. I was not expecting to see her after she and Han were separated at the spaceport either. And, if we are being honest, I was certainly not expecting to walk out of the theater feeling like she was the high point of the movie and wanting to see more of her and her life with Darth Maul. But, here we are.

Emilia Clarke, who portrayed the character in Solo, has recently sparked rumors of her return to the Star Wars storylines when in a recent interview, she was visibly uncomfortable in responding to a question from Ben Mendelsohn about her interest in returning to Star Wars. Mendelsohn, who also starred in Rogue One : A Star Wars Story and now on Marvel’s Secret Invasion, quickly appears to try and cover for her and then Clarke goes on to say “I’m in Marvel now, I’m not allowed.”

Does Emilia Clarke know something that we need to know? Or is she nervously distancing herself from Solo and Qi’ra?  In all honesty, we can make an argument in either direction. But let’s take the argument in the direction of her coming back and look at some things we could look forward to with a return of Qi’ra to any Star Wars property, big screen or streaming on Disney Plus.

The crime syndicate and Darth Maul 

In Star Wars lore we have many stories of the crime syndicates. Whether it’s the introduction of the Hutts in A New Hope, or the Pyke Syndicate in Clone Wars, or stories of others in the legends novels and comics, we see them as formidable opponents to all that is right and working outside the realm of the Empire.

However, in the movie Solo : A Star Wars Story, we see Crimson Dawn, one of the 5 major crime syndicates and are introduced to Dryden Vos. Dryden Vos is one of the higher ranking members of Crimson Dawn and is running his own jobs from his base on Yacht. It’s here that we realize that the young girl that Solo loved on Corellia has grown up to be the right hand of Dryden Vos. We see that Qi’ra is well trained and highly trusted by Dryden to accomplish any task that he assigns her.

The question is – should we care? Yes, we should care because the story of Qi’ra isn’t finished. The movie ends with her interacting with Darth Maul and then flying off to meet him. Don’t you want to know what happens next? I sure do. Darth Maul is one of my all time favorite villains, and not just for Star Wars. How cool would it be to see a Star Wars property pick up where that left off? Very cool, that’s how cool. It can be a Solo 2, it can a Crimson Dawn or Crime syndicate themed show. Although I want to see it done before Maul’s final showdown with Kenobi. So it has to be done before the Rebels era at least. There is so much possible storyline here.

Team Ups with other strong female characters 

Qi’ra has the wonderful position of being in a spot where she can be morally gray. Not a Gray Jedi, just morally gray. That means that Qi’ra could team up with characters on the light or dark side and have some amazing adventures. Consider these two

Doctor Aphra 

In the comics, there has already been a Doctor Aphra and Qi’ra team up in Star Wars : Doctor Aphra #28. So you can read that to see how that team up would have gone, on paper at least. Comics. Paper. See what I did there?

Anyway, both Aphra and Qi’ra have dark side ties. Aphra has been seen as a sidekick of sorts to Darth Vader, and Qi’ra, obviously has ties to Maul. Both have worked with unscrupulous folks from time to time – Aphra with Black Krrsantan, Triple Zero and others, and Qi’ra with Dryden Vos and Lando Calrissian, before Lando became the rebel that we all know and love.

There are lots of stories where the two of them could work together, either Aphra hiring Qi’ra to help her on her “Indiana Jones” style quests as presented to her by the Galactic Empire or, Qi’ra hiring Aphra as some intelligent muscle as part of Crimson Dawn. And that’s just a couple of scenarios, I am sure the super smart TV show and movie writers could figure out some better story lines.

Ahsoka Tano 

Teaming with Ahsoka would admittedly be fan service. And honestly, I am completely ok with fan service as long as the fan service is done right. Give me a solid story and properly built characters and I am good to go.

The great thing about Ahsoka’s timeline is that she is both pre and post Galactic Empire. Allowing team ups with many characters quite easily. Qi’ra and Ahsoka would most notably team up somewhere between the end of Solo and the end of Empire Strikes Back. I can see them teaming up to work against the Empires needs as part of possibly an uneasy alliance, like what we see from Ahsoka in The Clone Wars when she joined forces with Asajj Ventress. Common enemy, separate goals. Qi’ra working for Crimson Dawn in a post Maul Era, and Ahsoka quietly working against the Empire as she finds her way back to the light.

Both Ahsoka and Aphra give many storylines where Q’ira could be interjected, easily and enjoyably.

A stand-alone story 

I like to think that I have already given you enough material to go on for some Q’ira stories. One more to consider – no team ups, just Q’ira.

For me, anyway, Qi’ra has an interesting enough story that she doesnt need other characters or help from others storylines. In Solo, she proved her character to be strong and independent. She worked alongside other strong characters, able and willing to assert herself when and as needed.

Because of that, I would very much like to see Emilia Clarke return as Qi’ra in a post Darth Maul era to assume control of Crimson Dawn. Have her run the show. Clearly, as the chief lieutenant of both Dryden Vos and Darth Maul she would have learned a thing or two, because she’s seen a thing or two. Go ahead, you can finish singing the commercial tagline in your head … I’ll wait.

Seriously though, Qi’ra has storylines available to her from her time in Solo up to the time of the Sequel era. One can assume that if Han Solo can make it to The Force Awakens timeline, so can Qi’ra. It would be quite a lot of fun to see her stories intersect with existing canon and how things that the Crimson Dawn would have done in the background to assist either side. Did she work with Lando at Cloud City? Did she help the Bothans obtain the plans for the Death Star? Did she help Maul track down Obi Wan on Tatooine? Did she ever work with Clone Force 99, aka The Bad Batch?

I think it’s safe to say, that although Emilia Clarke cannot currently talk about it, she certainly lit the fuse. Star Wars fans are hoping that where there is smoke, there will be some fire in the form of more Qi’ra. And it would seem that Emilia Clarke is at least interested in the character still, so maybe it can all work out. The more Qi’ra, the better.