Seldom is a character with as careless an attitude as loved by scores of fans like Han Solo is. The Happy Go lucky smugger that was unwittingly embroiled in a war between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, and ultimately helping the former blow the latter to Kingdom Come is one of the most fan-favorite characters ever, ranked within the top ten in almost every Major Magazine’s and Portal’s Top Ten heroes list. When you destroy a Galaxy spanning empire with nothing but a handheld Laser blaster, it makes reason when you make it to such lists.
Han Solo is a living legend. There is no question about that. Up until The Force Awakens happened, he still was. Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi trilogy changed the very thing that made Star Wars Star Wars. The Holy Trinity of Star Wars – Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, are dead. While Leia’s death will come as no surprise as Carrie Fisher (God Bless her soul) passed away last year, the rest of the two actors are still alive and kicking. Why did Rian Johnson kill off the most iconic characters of a franchise that is making a trilogy twenty years after their previous attempt at one failed miserably? It never did make any sense then nor does it make any now. While Luke’s death was somewhat poetic (and he kind of had it coming), Han Solo’s death never did. Why was Solo killed off so easily?
If the writers did not want the new characters to always stay in the shadow of the old ones, the least they could do is do the old characters some justice before piercing their still-beating hearts with a fucking Lightsaber!!!
Harrison Ford’s iconic Han Solo character returns after three decades to the home team. The Last Jedi trilogy finally features an aged Han Solo saying the iconic line – ‘Chewie, we are home…’ In The Force Awakens, Han Solo decides to try and persuade his son to come back to him. Kylo Ren, otherwise known as Ben Solo, and the child of Han Solo and Leia Organa, is not at all interested at leaving the Dark Side. He pretends he is being swayed by Han’s words only to let him get closer as he switches his Lightsaber on and punches a hole in his own father’s chest. As tragic as that death may be, The Last Jedi still did not have a funeral scene for Han Solo.
Director Rian Johnson explains there wasn’t enough time for a scene as heartbreaking as that considering the fast-paced plotline of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Here is what he says:
[There was no debate of showing Han Solo’s funeral], just because pacing-wise it didn’t have a place. It’s tough in Star Wars because I always think about the mourning that Luke gives to Ben’s death, which is all of the four-and-a-half seconds before, ‘Come on kid we’re not out of this yet’ and then boom, you’re into ‘Yay, woo-hoo! Don’t get cocky!’ There’s the moment for it, but it’s not long. We don’t have time for our sorrows, commanders. That’s kind of the thing of Star Wars; you don’t really linger on grief because you’re moving forward.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi was all about the action and the thrill. Right from the opening scenes, the movie showed how the Resistance was fighting a losing war against the First Order that was out for revenge for the Rebels destroying their precious Starkiller base. With all the lasers and the Starfighters flying around, it was almost impossible to integrate a scene of Han Solo’s funeral into the movie. The very same reason Luke could not mourn his Master Obi-Wan Kenobi’s death in A New Hope is the very reason it couldn’t be done with Han Solo too. The element of action within the story outweighed the emotional quotient.
However there was a scene, claims Johnson, when the camera zooms in on Leia’s face which is shown growing weary of all the losses and sacrifices her and her people had to make, chief amongst them being including Han Solo’s.
I think we do it a little more in this movie than typically is done. I really held onto that moment of Leia before they come out of hyperspace, just that moment of feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders… It was never something where there was an organic place for it like, ‘Oh it would go here.’ It was always something like, ‘We wanna get this right up on our feet and going from the start.’
But don’t get sad, the funeral scene will be portrayed in The Last Jedi novelization that is about to hit the stores pretty soon. Grab yours and relive one of the coolest and most heart-wrenching scenes in cinematic history.
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