Throwback Line From Han Solo Removed From The Novelization of 'The Force Awakens'
It seems that the story of the sequel trilogy is one rife with some kind of curse, since the behind the scenes stories never seem to end. First the rumors for years about whether they would ever happen before Disney took over the franchise and now the endless tales, there's sure not a lack of content involving the sequel trilogy for us to hear. It seems it's not over yet either. Now, according to author Alan Dean Foster, Disney made him remove a throwback line from his novelization of The Force Awakens.
Foster, who wrote the novelization for the first film in the sequel trilogy, has revealed that Disney kept a bit of a tighter leash on him than expected. It's normal for novelizations to take brief liberties with the stories that they are based on. Novels provide us with insight regarding the interior thoughts of characters, allowing us to understand their thoughts and motivations much better than movies as a medium do. As such, authors have their work cut out for them when they write a novel based on a movie. Foster attempted to take such liberties, not just by implying that there was a romance between Finn and Rey, but also by trying to include a throwback line all the way to the original film in 1977.
Foster initially had written a line for when Han Solo meets Rey for the first time and they're aboard the Millennium Falcon, where he compliments her begrudgingly and then hits her with the iconic "Don't get cocky, kid" line from the 1977 original. Regarding that attempted addition, Foster had this to say:
"There's a scene in there from the film and in the book where Rey has come aboard The Millennium Falcon and Han Solo can't get things to work and she fixes it and the Millennium Falcon starts up. And Han Solo says something to the effect of 'good work' or 'good job' reluctantly he says it. And then I had him say 'Don't get cocky, kid.' Which of course is a throwback to what he says to Luke in the first film. I thought that was a wonderful way of connecting the character to the first film and the first story. I thought fans would love that, and they made me take it out."
It's not uncommon for movie studios to keep an eye on the novelization and control what goes in, but this is a bit of a nitpicky removal. It can be understood that Disney wanted the novel to be as close to the film as possible, but it is a long standing tradition to have Star Wars novelizations, and they almost always have large deviations from the film to the story in minor mentions, internal thoughts, and subtext. Foster didn't seem pleased, as an author, with the forced removal of what he believed to be a good line to call all the way back to A New Hope. Many fans were hoping for more callbacks in The Force Awakens, so having a line like that would've been a small piece of fan service to please them.
It's not uncommon for Disney to put that kind of control on Star Wars; they've been very cautious with making new films and things around it. It's clear that Disney is taking great care of Star Wars and don't want to do anything without careful approval first, a smart move given how Star Wars fans can tend to react when they don't approve of something. Luckily, with the runaway success of The Mandalorian, Disney has started to earn some good will with fans who weren't fans of their trilogy. Hopefully, they'll loosen the reigns a little in the future and allow these references to take place more frequently.
Source(s): The Direct