Here’s an interesting tidbit from the upcoming Han Solo standalone film: that “mentor figure” that Woody Harrelson is playing? Fans of Star Wars books (specifically of A.C. Crispin’s Han Solo Trilogy) will know him quite well….
In a recent interview with Variety, a savvy interviewer made their question about Harrelson’s character a bit more explicit–they asked if he was playing Garris Shrike, and Harrelson responded, “Yeah, I am.”
While it’s possible that he didn’t entirely hear the question, if this is true, that is a pretty big reveal in terms of his potential role in the story. Crispin’s trilogy dealt with Han Solo’s childhood as well as his younger adult years, and Shrike was basically the “Fagan” in his Oliver Twist-esque youth–he took on homeless kids and trained them to steal and con for him, abusing them when the mood suited. The banner of “Legends” for the old Expanded Universe novels means that it’s possible for the film to use Shrike only in name and remold the character entirely, but it seems more likely that his use will have some bearing on the plot of the film that mirrors Crispin’s original story.
This is fascinating because if true, this might be the biggest pull from the old Expanded Universe canon that we’ve seen thus far. There have been fun bits of trivia and name drops here and there, and the biggest move so far was dropping in Timothy Zahn’s Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Heir to the Empire Trilogy–he has now been featured on the tv show Rebels and has a new book coming up soon. But Shrike would be the first major character from the EU novels to get plugged into a Star Wars film. It opens the door wide for more concepts to make their way into the new canon, which will make for fun hunting amongst EU fans.
This is the part where we all start shouting for Mara Jade, of course. But I would also like to put a vote in for adapting Timothy Zahn’s Scoundrels for screen. If we have to sit through a bunch of Han Solo films, I would like at least one of them to be Ocean’s Eleven with smugglers and mercenaries, please.
HAHA! I think I actually speculated that in a comment (maybe not Woody Harrelson in specific, but wondered aloud if they would bring a character like that back) but I wasn’t sure if I thought they would do that.
I actually did enjoy this trilogy quite a bit, so I wouldn’t mind if they brought some elements in from it. I was just talking to my husband about what aspects of Han’s character they might bring in – his Imperial past, his rescuing Chewbacca from slavers, etc.
Interestingly, this trilogy also has a large plot dealing with stealing the Death Star plans…wonder how (or if) they will have Han involved with that since obviously Rogue One has overwritten some of that!
So here’s my old comment on the Woody Harrelson thread:
“This amuses me. I wonder if they’ll bring back any hints of the old EU (Shrike, Thraackan, Gallandro etc) in a mixed up way (like how TFA kinda sorta transplanted Darth Cadeus into the EU).”
Kind of excited that I halfway guessed something. I also wonder if they’ll bring in any of the smuggling antics from the comics or the story that he blew up the mascot moon of the Academy, etc, haha. I’ve only got vague memories of that stuff though.
A reference or two from the Brian Daley novels would be cool. When I first saw K2-SO in Rogue One, I immediately thought of Bollux from the Han Solo books.
Since shouting for Mara Jade is now officially open. . .while I no longer think that Rey is Luke’s daughter, is there any chance that she is Mara’s? There would have to be some reshuffling of the events of the Thrawn Crisis such that Luke helped redeem Mara, but did not marry her (in Bloodline, Leia makes it clear that she has no knowledge that Luke ever married or had children). However, Rey’s accent raises the strong possibility that she was born on Coruscant–Mara would also have had a Coruscanti accent after being raised in the palace–and if Ben Solo murdered Mara during whatever events the lightsaber flashback hint at, that would be a subtle shout-out to the points of contact between his story and Jacen Solo’s. Rey would have to have been born significantly later than Ben, but Leia might have been quite a young woman when she had Ben, such that Mara could have still biologically had a child 8-10 years later.
@@.-@ In the current continuity, Leia has been described as being pregnant with Ben in the weeks leading up to the Battle of Jakku, so Ben was born at the earliest one year after Endor.
Mara Jade is fine and all.
But I will continue yelling for the X-Wing novels with Rogue/Wraith Squadrons to make it in to movies. I want Lt. Kettch on screen. They would be fantastic for the in between movies.
So Harrelson won’t be playing a humanoid green space rabbit. Thats fine then. I guess.
I love Mara Jade exactly how she is, so I don’t want to see her brought into the existing canon simply because they can’t do that without making her some other version of herself – at which point she really wouldn’t be Mara Jade anymore. If they want to make a Mara Jade inspired character – awesome. But I am not crazy about the trend of using the same name (perhaps to hit that nostalgia point with fans) but then making it a different concept. Clone Wars/Rebels does this too, and it makes me kind of eye twitchy. Sometimes it works (I kinda liked the Dathomir/Nightsisters tie in, for example), but I think for somebody as iconic as Mara Jade (hey man, I still remember the old Star Wars Insider write-in poll where she managed to make it onto a list of favorite characters despite being EU), she should just be left alone.
And if we’re talking about adaptations, I’d love to see John Jackson Miller’s Kenobi on screen :) Or maybe some of Traviss’s Clone Wars arcs (like the doomed romance between a Jedi and a clone).