On the newest Empire Film Podcast, Lawrence Kasdan stopped by to talk about his work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At several moments, the discussion turns towards the Han Solo film and what it will and won’t be. There is some skepticism about a Han Solo movie and Kasdan says:

I think it won’t be the thing you’re worried about. It will not be like here is where he was born and this is how he was raised. I think what it will be is what was he like ten years earlier, ya know maybe a little earlier you’ll get a glimpse but… what formed the person we meet in the cantina? It is not so much about his specific history. It is about what makes a person like that? He’s not full formed in the cantina! Kurosawa once said ‘the heroes are the ones that are still changing and the villains are locked and petrified into what they are’ and Harrison embodies in Force Awakens someone that’s still not settled on who he is.

The more we hear Kasdan talk about the movie, it sounds like it will be a film that simply tells an important adventure in Han Solo’s life and maybe plays into the reason he’s so callous in A New Hope’s cantina sequence. If this movie isn’t so much about the “becoming” Han Solo stuff and the origin story type stuff, it could also mean the elements written for Han Solo in Star Wars Underworld are fairly intact still should those scripts see the light of day on screen down the road.

Christopher Miller and Phil Lord are directing Han Solo which was written by Lawrence Kasdan and his son, Jon Kasdan. The movie is set for release on May 25th, 2018. Casting is still underway with over 2500 candidates vying for the role.