The Secret Han Solo Tribute In 'The Last Jedi'
A recent tweet has resurfaced an Easter egg that's been hiding in plain sight within The Last Jedi for the past few years, as confirmed by the film's writer and director, Rian Johnson.
Han Solo *Spoilers* having been killed by his son, Kylo Ren, in the previous film, 2015’s The Force Awakens, seemed to have spurred on some serious want for vengeance with a few members of the Resistance. Considering Solo’s importance and legendary status amongst the Star Wars community, this shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. As any audience member at the time would tell you, it was quite a shock to see one of the original three protagonists of the series meet his end at the hands of his own child.
At the start of the second film of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, we are thrown into a galactic offensive involving multiple Resistance craft, as they attempt to make their escape from their base, and take out the enemy flagship, a First Order Dreadnought, in an intense bombing run sequence. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, one of the bombs can be seen etched with one of the franchise's distinctive alien languages across it. Twitter user @CorellianBlue caught this detail and decided to post about the intergalactic writing, which has been translated to a simple message: "Han says hi."
What's even more amusing is that the discovery of this nod to the legendary nerf-herder didn't go unnoticed by the writer and director of the film in question. Though this tiny tribute from the eighth entry of the Star Wars Skywalker saga has been pointed out before in passing, Johnson, having recently directed the critically-acclaimed mystery film Knives Out, is quite active on Twitter, and responded back as only Han himself would to this clever, clue-catching fan.
Say what you will about the sequel trilogy as a whole, and more specifically about The Last Jedi, but you have to give credit where credit is due for this fun little bit of fan service honoring a fallen friend. Johnson has been nothing if not grateful to Star Wars fans and the community, and has consistently been keen to show his love of the series whenever possible. Even a few years and some difficult discourse later surrounding his entry into the canon, it's clear it's still very much there.
Although Han Solo himself already had his ultimate fate sealed, Harrison Ford later returned to play the smirking hero one final time in the sequel trilogy via 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, as a ghostly vision for Ben Solo, though looking a tad scruffier than usual compared to when we last saw him. The character has continued to prove one of the most popular in the series and has served as an integral part of it in many different media, including books, comics, and video games. He even got his own spin-off film, 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard and starring Alden Ehrenreich as a younger version of the titular character. Though it premiered to a mixed response and poor box office, the film itself was a fun little detour, and filled in some juicy bits of backstory about his past.
Even with those numerous notches on his belt, it remains to be seen if he might make an appearance in some form or another on one of the newly-announced shows in the upcoming slate of Disney+ projects, perhaps in a similar vein to the appearance of Luke in the second season finale of The Mandalorian. Considering that the timeline of those series is only about five years forward from the end of Return of the Jedi, there are numerous directions that Lucasfilm could take him in, even if it’s just a passing mention, or an all-out cameo. One thing’s for certain, however; everyone’s favorite swashbuckling smuggler isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Source(s): GamesRadar+