Lawrence and Jon Kasdan Talk About How They Got Involved With 'Solo'

By: Dominic Jones

The writing duo behind Solo: A Star Wars Story have a lengthy history with the Star Wars franchise.  Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of Solo, has been involved in the writing of three Star Wars movies prior to Solo.  He was first recruited by George Lucas in 1979 to re-write his script for The Empire Strikes Back and then partnered again with Lucas on the script for Return of the Jedi.  Thirty years later, he was approached by Lucasfilm to write a Han Solo movie, but before that could get off the ground he was asked to work with JJ Abrams on the script for The Force Awakens. 

After working with Abrams on The Force Awakens, Kasdan was unsure if he would return to the project that would become Solo.  He explained to Entertainment Weekly,

"When I was done, I was sort of burned out. And I said, ‘I don’t know, do we still want to do this Han thing?’ And they said, ‘Yeah! We really want you to go ahead with Han.’ And I said, ‘Well, my son, Jon, is very enthusiastic and full of ideas about the saga.’ And he had directed two movies and had done other things. ‘What if he came on and worked with me? Because, that would give me a shot in the arm.’ And so, that’s exactly what happened."

While his son, and Solo co-writer, Jon doesn't have quite the storied history with Star Wars that his father does, he does have many fond memories associated with the series.  He told EW,

"When I was a little kid, George was still in the habit — this was the coolest thing ever — George would send a box of toys at Christmas, and it was absolutely the highlight of Christmas. We were fanatical about it. And we had no interest in presents from our parents. It was just, ‘What was gonna come from Lucasfilm?’ And it was always a score."

The two got to work on the script for Solo and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can read the entire interview with the Kasdans about how they came to the project and some of their inspirations for Solo here.

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25th, 2018 and stars Alden Ehrenreich (Hail Caesar!) as Han Solo, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi'Ra, Woody Harrelson (True Detective) as Beckett, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-3K, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, and Paul Bettany (The Avengers) as Dryden Vos.  The film is directed by Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind), with a script by Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back) and his son Jon Kasdan (The First Time).

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Follow The Star Wars Underworld on Twitter @TheSWU for more updates about this story and other breaking Star Wars news.