New Solo: A Star Wars Story Featurette Teases Rebellious Han

With Avengers: Infinity War now officially in theaters, pop culture fans are slowly shifting their attention away from Marvel's super-sized superhero spectacle and onto Disney and Lucasfilm's Solo: A Star Wars Story, set for release in late May. To boost hype for the Star Wars standalone, Lucasfilm unveiled a fresh featurette showing off new footage and teasing a different side to the titular space-faring smuggler. 

The featurette, entitled "Becoming Solo," dives deep into the world of Solo — and sees Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) fly straight into it, trying to find his place. Director Ron Howard kicks off the footage, explaining that though fans are extremely familiar with Han as a character, they aren't with the universe in which Solo is set: the kind where the Empire rules over everything with an iron fist, and there's not a whole lot of rebellion bubbling below the surface. Well, except in Han, of course. Howard describes him as a rare, reckless "free spirit."

Actor Ehrenreich says of Han in the featurette, "You end up getting to see how this guy got to be the way he is." Donald Glover, the man behind young Lando Calrissian in Solo, adds that the audience is "meeting Han right before he becomes the Han that we know." Solo screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan notes that Han is probably the most intriguing character in the franchise thanks to his unpredictability — "you don't know what he's going to do" — and his rebellious attitude. 

In addition to this insight into Han Solo's personality, we also see a ton of new film footage tucked into the featurette, including Han dressed in Imperial soldier armor on the swamp planet Mimban, Han's first conversations with Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and extra peeks at Han's criminal mentor Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and the mysterious Val (Thandie Newton). 

Check it out above.

Here's what to expect from Solo: A Star Wars Story: "Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo befriends his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and meets the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes."

Solo: A Star Wars Story will zoom into theaters on May 25.