One of the more intriguing supporting characters introduced in The Force Awakens was Maz Kanata. The wise old woman, played by Lupita Nyong’o, was shown to have a lot of knowledge on the Force and the ways of the Jedi. Notably, she had Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in her possession until she handed it over to Rey. There’s currently a lot of questions surrounding the character and in particular, her background, but from what we understand, Maz will actually have a reduced role in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is surprising to hear.
We’re still not sure how she’ll factor into things, but fans shouldn’t be too disappointed, as it seems that in order to make up for the fact that we won’t be seeing her much in the upcoming sequel, Disney has found room for Maz in Han Solo. Or at least, it sure sounds like they have. Though this remains unconfirmed at the moment, we have evidence that points to Kanata making an appearance in the prequel, and it comes to us from podcaster Steele Saunders.
During an interview with Mark Robben, Director of Marketing for Funko, the spinoff came up in conversation and Robben noted how excited he is for it, citing the cast as one of the reasons he’s looking forward to seeing the movie, and according to him, that cast includes “Emilia Clarke, Lupita Nyong’o, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson.” Now, Robben might just be getting mixed up here, but given that Funko no doubt has information we don’t, as they need to get their toys ready ahead of the film’s release, fans believe that he accidentally slipped up and revealed something he shouldn’t have. That being Nyong’o’s involvement.
Plus, there’s also the fact that we know Maz and Han have a history, and the prequel would be a great place to explore that, would it not? Then again, we’re not sure exactly how far they go back, and perhaps she hasn’t met the iconic hero yet by the time that the events of the spinoff take place. Right now, it’s tough to say, but having her show up here would not be surprising at all and hopefully we’ll get some confirmation on this sooner rather than later.
Lucasfilm and Ron Howard’s unnamed Han Solo movie will be with us on May 25th, 2018. Before exploring the origin story behind the galaxy’s greatest smuggler, though, the Powers That Be will be directing our attention to the release of The Last Jedi on December 15th of this year.
