Whether it’s Shaun of the Dead or Avengers: Infinity War, watching a film for the second time can really open up the hidden themes and subplots woven into the very heart of each story.
In the case of Solo: A Star Wars Story, it encourages a newfound appreciation for Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra. Or so says Sam Witwer, the voice behind Darth Maul.
Chatting to Cinema Blend, Witwer reflected on the true meaning behind Ron Howard’s Star Wars Anthology pic, and why it’s really a movie about Qi’ra trying desperately to steer Han in the right direction – even if it means breaking his heart in the process. If you didn’t catch it first time around, don’t fret; as Witwer says, it’s really that second viewing that will allow you to appreciate Solo: A Star Wars Story on a deeper, more profound level.
It doesn’t occur to you the first time, but the second time you see the movie, that movie is really about Qi’ra trying to save Han Solo’s soul, because she knows he’s gonna follow her all the way to hell if he has the chance, so she has to break his heart. She has to keep him away from the darkest elements of the universe. She has to keep him firmly out of hell and ascending, which his trajectory as a character is to ascend, and she knows that.
These comments come in good time, too, given Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available to pick up via digital platforms (September 25th for Blu-ray and DVD), thereby allowing every household in the galaxy to watch Ron Howard’s space opera until their heart’s content.
Witwer continued:
But that ascendant quality that Han Solo has, that good guy quality could be corrupted and used in the opposite direction, because she knows where she’s going and she knows he doesn’t belong there. So if you want to really illustrate that, and you need to keep that criminal, dark side element in the background and keep it mysterious, then yes, it’s a smart move to use something that George Lucas had already established elsewhere and suddenly introduce that in there.
Initially angled as the beginning of a new trilogy for Lucasfilm, Solo: A Star Wars Story undershot expectations quite dramatically ($392M worldwide), so it’s unclear when (if?) we’ll ever see Alden Ehrenreich’s nerf-herder again.
