There’s a scene in Solo: A Star Wars Story—mid-train heist, snow flying, chaos erupting—where Han quite literally fumbles his way into being the hero. It’s clumsy and unexpectedly heartfelt, much like the movie itself.
Released in 2018 under the shadow of a very public director swap, Disney’s franchise fatigue, and the internet’s inability to let go of Harrison Ford, Solo never really had a fair shot. It grossed $393 million globally, making it the lowest-earning live-action Star Wars film, thus earning it the dreaded “flop” label.
However, box office numbers rarely tell the whole story. Solo isn’t actually a bad movie. In fact, it’s a lot more fun than most people give it credit for.
Solo hit theaters a mere five months after The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson’s film that split the fandom more violently than a lightsaber through a Praetorian Guard. Audiences were tired, skeptical of Disney’s version of Lucasfilm, and not exactly chomping at the bit for a Han Solo origin story, especially one without Ford anywhere on the cast list.
On top of the fandom’s malaise, Solo suffered from a mid-production overhaul that saw original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, known for their irreverent, fast-paced humor in films like 21 Jump Street, replaced by Ron Howard.
At the time, Vanity Fair called the initial shoots “messy,” noting, “Phil and Chris are good directors, but they weren't prepared for Star Wars…After the 25th take, the actors are looking at each other like, ‘This is getting weird.’”
The final cut, despite the behind-the-scenes chaos, is a surprisingly coherent, swashbuckling space western that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do – show how Han (my favorite character in the entire franchise, as a sidebar) became Han.
Alden Ehrenreich’s Solo performance gets better on repeat viewings
No one was going to replace Harrison Ford, and Solo doesn’t even try. Instead, Alden Ehrenreich portrays a version of Han who hasn’t yet learned to be the consummately cool guy we meet in A New Hope.
He’s optimistic and scrappy, and frankly a little naive, despite his hard-edged Corellian upbringing. The swagger isn’t fully there yet, but that’s the whole point. This is a younger Han who still believes in people and trusts that maybe, just maybe, they have good intentions. This Han hasn’t yet been hardened by Jabba or the reality of life as a smuggler on the run.
This side of Han is showcased in his burgeoning relationship with Chewbacca. From their first muddy, chaotic fight to quietly building trust over stolen ships and shared victories, their bond feels earned, not fated. This is the rare Star Wars film that shows Chewie as more than a loyal co-pilot. He’s a displaced warrior, a voice of conscience, and Han’s equal in every sense – and Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo play it off very well.
I’m the biggest Han Solo fan I know, and even I think Ehrenreich’s performance gets better on repeat viewings. Watch Solo with the mindset that this version of the character isn’t trying to be Ford. He’s trying to become him.
Donald Glover, Scene Stealer
While Ehrenreich’s performance is an acquired taste, Donald Glover makes his entrance as Lando Calrissian like he already owns the Millennium Falcon. To be fair, for a while, he kind of does.
Glover's Solo performance is electric, simultaneously smooth and absurd, perfectly slotting into a younger version of Billy Dee Williams’s legendary Lando. Glover embodied Lando’s charm and flair with the perfect amount of camp, while still keeping the character human enough to be relatable.
The chemistry between Glover and Ehrenreich is one of the film’s highlights, especially during their Sabacc game showdown. It’s playful, tense, and definitely could’ve launched a whole series of buddy smuggler adventures (a prospect some fans are still begging for).
Solo: A Star Wars Story is a space western, not a war
Another thing that sets Solo apart is its genre. This isn’t a Force-driven, prophecy-heavy epic like the sequels that surrounded it. It’s a scrappy space western, a heist movie. It’s a tale of double-crosses, desert deals, and a ragtag band just trying to stay one step ahead of their past.
In a strange way, that makes Solo more faithful to George Lucas’s original vision than most other recent installments. As Lucas himself put it, “I always considered [the Star Wars] films Westerns.”
This DNA is what gives Solo its unique flavor within the Star Wars franchise. There’s no looming Death Star or epic lightsaber battles. It’s just a small-time rogue trying to make good (or at least make the run).
Ron Howard fully leaned into the grit. The intentionally dark cinematography gives Solo a lived-in feel. We’re blasted into the Star Wars underworld we rarely get to explore in film. We visit the spice mines, the crime syndicates, and the smoky back rooms. It scratches the itch that fans of The Clone Wars and Andor know well – Star Wars is so much more than Jedi vs. Sith.
Speaking of crime syndicates…
I’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Solo’s Darth Maul reveal. Say what you will about its abruptness, but it was bold, and it cracked open the door to one of the richest untapped veins in the franchise.
Tied directly to Crimson Dawn, Maul’s appearance reframed the movie’s criminal storyline as more than a one-off situation. It positioned Qi’ra, who had already emerged as one of Solo’s most intriguing characters, as a key cog in a much larger galactic power struggle.
Emilia Clarke offers the right mix of vulnerability and veiled ruthlessness. She’s not a love interest. She’s a survivor who is always looking out for number one. Qi’ra’s final choice, taking Dryden Vos’s place at Maul’s side, is chilling in all the right ways..
With The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and the upcoming Maul: Shadow Lord animated series all expanding on Darth Maul’s role as a shadowy power broker, Solo can function as an anchor point in the timeline.
Fans have called for a Crimson Dawn spin-off, and even Clarke has said that Qi’ra has “the most unfinished business” of any role she’s played.
So, what went wrong with Solo: A Star Wars Story?
Solo’s “failure” has less to do with its content and more to do with its context. It wasn’t the right film for May 2018. Disney was still learning how to pace Star Wars releases. Marketing was muddled. Expectations were high. Let’s bear in mind that none of that means the film itself doesn’t work.
In fact, years later, many fans have come around. Reddit threads and YouTube video essays alike argue that Solo is “underrated,” “a hidden gem,” and “better than 75% of Disney Star Wars.”
One Reddit commenter shared, “Solo is a hidden gem in the Disney era. It’s fun, it’s fast, and it truly grows on you after the first watch.”
On YouTube, fan essays like this one recommend the movie, contrasting its grounded, character-driven narrative with the sprawling Jedi-centric epics that comprise the Skywalker Saga.
Solo is the kind of movie that thrives on rewatch. Put on in the background, and I bet you’ll find yourself sucked in again and again.
Could Solo get a second life? It’s not out of the question. The film already fits into the post-prequel, pre-A New Hope timeline, a popular point in the timeline that Lucasfilm has only just begun to explore on Disney+.
The grassroots #MakeSolo2Happen campaign, spearheaded by the Resistance Broadcast podcast, has trended multiple times on Twitter/X—rallying fans and cast members alike in support of a sequel or spinoff. Even Ron Howard acknowledged the movement in interviews, calling the fan response "flattering" and suggesting there’s always a chance if the demand holds.
Ehrenreich has said he’d be open to returning—“in the right context,” he told Esquire, adding that there’s "so much fun stuff" left to do with the character. He’s right. There’s still plenty of smuggling left in Han’s tale, plenty of dice to roll.
Solo: A Star Wars Story isn’t flawless by a long shot. But it is fun. It’s fast. Against all odds, it’s full of heart. At the end of the day, it adds something valuable to the galaxy – the reminder that not every tale needs to be epic to matter.
Sometimes, it’s enough to follow the trail of a scruffy-looking nerf herder and his Wookiee best friend as they’re just trying to make it out alive.
Maybe it’s time to stop calling Solo a flop and start calling it what it is: a diamond-in-the-rough that deserves another shot.
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