The Han Solo Movie Is Close To Casting A Very Intriguing New Sidekick

The Han Solo Movie Is Close To Casting A Very Intriguing New Sidekick

A new rumour about the latest casting for the Han Solo spinoff is dropping some major hints about another member of the primary cast of the film, beyond Han himself, Chewie and Lando. If it ends up being what we think it is, the character could be a pretty interesting first for a Star Wars movie.

Variety is reporting that Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge is in early talks to join the film in a major role. However, that role won’t actually use Waller-Bridge’s physical self — it’s apparently a “CGI-driven performance”, but nonetheless a character who is a main part of the primary cast, in the vein of K-2SO in Rogue One.

While it’s certainly possible that the role is for an alien, like of Lupita Nyong’o’s performance as Maz Kanata in The Force Awakens, Variety only refers to droids, which has us thinking that Waller-Bridge’s potential role might be for a droid companion in the film. That’s interesting in two ways: First, between this and Alan Tudyk’s mocap performance for K2, it seems like the Star Wars films are pretty much done with the traditional “guy in a suit” style of main character droids going forward, much to the chagrin of poor Anthony Daniels, forever encased in his C-3PO costume.

But also if Waller-Bridge is cast, it would mean that for the first time a Star Wars movie features a primary droid character who will, presumably, be gendered as female. While droids in the galaxy far, far away are genderless, the droid characters of the films have all been described in male terms, or have masculine voices in the case of Threepio and K2. Even BB-8, despite some initial confusion, ultimately turned out to be referred to with male pronouns. It’d be nice to shake that up a bit and feature a main droid member of a Star Wars cast who was identified as female instead.

The as-yet-untitled Han Solo film is currently due out in the US 25 May 2018.


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