Han Solo Never Really Died In Star Wars

Part of the reason that audiences everywhere love Han Solo is because of his compelling character arc. When we meet him in A New Hope, he’s a smuggler who is seemingly only out for himself, only agreeing to help Obi-Wan Kenobi because of the promise of a very juicy payment.

He even prepares to leave the Rebellion in the hour of their greatest need because he’s finally gotten his money, but in a cheer-worthy moment, he returns in time to fire on Darth Vader’s ship, providing Luke Skywalker with the crucial moments that he needed to destroy the Death Star.

In the context of the Original Trilogy, Han Solo’s character arc is fairly unique, instantly separating him from the automatically noble heroes that he encounters. Decades later, Disney bought the Star Wars license from George Lucas and began trying to replicate what made the franchise great.

While those efforts have yielded some high-budget flops like The Acolyte, it has also given us hit shows like The Mandalorian and Andor that are so appealing to audiences in part because the main characters reflect Solo’s original character arc of going from criminal to purpose-driven new hero.

Think about it: in The Mandalorian, Din Djarin seems like a fairly original character because we’ve never gotten such a deep dive into a Mandalorian, much less one who becomes daddy to an adorable baby Yoda.

But the chief arc of Djarin is that he goes from being someone only out for his own benefit to someone who finds a new purpose and becomes a hero to others. If you peek under this show’s cool helmet, you can see that this arc more or less perfectly matches Han Solo’s arc.

That is also true of Cassian Andor in Andor: he’s a character that we were previously introduced to in Rogue One as a morally murky Rebel…the kind of guy that does dirty work while characters like Luke Skywalker and Leia get to look squeaky-clean.

Andor, however, is a prequel series that shows how he went from someone only willing to work for the Rebels for money to a true believer who is ready to take down the Empire. Once again, we have a “new” character following the essential arc of Han Solo.

You can see that arc even in lesser shows like The Book of Boba Fett: before that show came out, fans were hyped to get a series focusing on the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, a man who will take out any target for the right price.

The idea of Fett taking over Jabba’s old job seemed enticing, but it didn’t take long before he became a full-on do-gooder, someone who protects helpless locals while ruthlessly taking out evil criminals.

The character would probably hate the comparison, but Boba Fett is following the “criminal to hero with a heart of gold” formula perfected by his one-time nemesis, Han Solo.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with newer Star Wars stories being an echo of what came before, but Disney’s habit of continuously reskinning Han Solo is getting annoying.

We’ve already gotten far too many movies and series focused on Jedi, and now even the non-Jedi content seems like a lame retread of what came before. But at least longtime fans can take solace from the idea that Solo never really died and will continue to influence his famous franchise for the foreseeable future.

No one’s ever really gone. Except, seemingly, the Disney writers capable of doing something original.