Disney has announced tonight that Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has joined their upcoming Han Solo spinoff in an undisclosed role. She’ll star alongside Donald Glover, who’ll be playing a young Lando Calrissian, and Alden Ehrenreich, who will slip into the iconic part of the titular smuggler himself.
Aside from those casting bits, the project is still very much shrouded in secrecy. Some plot rumors have pointed to the film revealing how Lando initially lost the Millennium Falcon to Han, while DP Bradford Young has teased the spinoff as being “funny, dramatic and unexpected.” Other than that, however, we’ve really got no idea as to what we can expect here or how the movie will fit into the larger Star Wars universe.
That’s to be expected though. Han Solo’s origin story won’t arrive in theatres until 2018, and Disney’s got a couple of other projects to focus on before then, namely Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode VIII. The latter of which is also on something of a media blackout, with not even so much as an official title being revealed yet.
Circling back to this spinoff though, we’re hearing that Clarke beat out “Kiersey Clemons, Tessa Thompson and fellow Game of Thrones alum Jessica Henwick” for the part. We’re happy that she did, too. Not that the other candidates aren’t talented individuals, but after the mess that was Terminator: Genisys, we were hoping Clarke would get another shot at starring in a big blockbuster. She’s an excellent actress and we’re excited to see her extend her talents beyond Westeros.
Written by Jon and Lawrence Kasdan, and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the Han Solo spinoff will be with us on May 25th, 2018. Once we have further details on Clarke’s casting, we’ll be sure to let you know.