Could Han Solo Appear In 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'?
The Smoking Gun
Since the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer dropped, Reddit has been buzzing with rumors of a Han Solo cameo. His signature DL-44 blaster midway through the teaser trailer got pulses racing and keyboards tapping. Why would Disney leave such an obvious Easter egg if he wasn’t going to appear? Unfortunately, it’s not like they’ve never done that to us before, Star Wars fans. Remember when Marvel told us they’d donated Karen Gillian’s red hair to The Force Awakens, and we were all sure it was for Mara Jade? Club Jade is still holding out hope. Keep believing in miracles, you crazy dreamers.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that it’s now canon that Han’s blaster was a hand-me-down from Beckett. Or another character might, just by chance, happen to have the same weapon. After all, BlasTech probably made more than one heavy blaster. So, Disney, are you playing with us?
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The Timeline
But we can’t fail to ignore the timing is very similar. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is set ten years after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, around 9BBY. This would pick it up at the end of a Solo: A Star Wars Story. Han spent three years in the Imperial Navy, and although a year or two on the early side of the timeline, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Disney’s writers to place Han flying around the galaxy, providing backup for the Inquisitors. Still, it’s a big universe. What are the chances they would bump into each other? It’s not like there’s some all mystical power that would ever cause that to conveniently happen.
Kenobi goes to Tatooine, but some of the scenes in the trailer are definitely not from the desert world. The Jedi clearly does not spend all his time there. This opens up possibilities for encounters anywhere. As well as the movie, the graphic novel Imperial Cadet (2018) by Robbie Thompson has Han stationed on Carida, Qulosk, and Mimban, so keep a lookout for any of these worlds as you watch. But all of these are before Han receives his infamous blaster. We don’t know where Han goes after the movie, and there are rumors of an entirely new world being featured in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, so he could pop up anywhere.
Crimson Dawn
When Disney originally made Solo: A Star Wars Story, they planned for several sequels. As expected, the film didn’t do as well at the box office, so future movies were shelved. Despite a string of excellent graphic novels, the canceled project created a massive hole in the Star Wars Universe that has yet to be filled. Maul appeared at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story as the new crime lord. Audiences gasped as the former Sith made his first live-action appearance since The Phantom Menace in a short sequence at the end of the film, revealing a new pair of legs, but not how he survived his fall or what he has been up to since. That was left to the animated series. There is no entanglement between Maul and Han. The loveable scoundrel supposedly lets go of his first love and stops chasing Crimson Dawn to smuggle for the Hutts. Does anyone else find that hard to believe?
So if Han might be chasing Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn, Crimson Dawn is likely chasing Kenobi. Maul hunts the Jedi throughout The Clone Wars and Rebels, determined to kill his nemesis no matter what it costs. If anything is going to give you a revenge complex, it’s getting cut in half. The pair face off four times before Kenobi reluctantly ends their rivalry for good. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing Ray Park back in the role for another duel of the fates? That could easily be possible in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Could Han’s hunt for his ex-girlfriend lead him to follow Maul right to the Jedi’s door? Wouldn’t that be something? I’m not sure Reddit could handle it. The forums would implode. Han, at this age, would have his DL-44.
A Waiting Game
There is too much of Han’s story left untold for him to not make an appearance in any forthcoming series. There are nine to ten years between the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Battle of Yavin. Disney has to decide what to do with the scruffy-looking nerf herder. The smuggler is too much of a hot property to shelve forever. Harrison Ford was just too good. His devil-may-care attitude and lopsided grin made the character and Solo: A Star Wars Story writers, producers, and actors have an impossible standard to live up to. Disney must realize they need to take more care before trying again. Now might be the time. Then again, they may have something else up their sleeve. But rest assured, Solo fans, it’s only a matter of time before he is back on our screens.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia, CBR