It’s been a long time coming, but finally – finally! – we’ve got our hands on the very first trailer for Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Given that we haven’t even seen any official photos up to this point, the footage here acts as our first real look at the pic (aside from last night’s brief tease), which is now only about 4 months away, and thankfully gives us at least a bit of an idea of what to expect.
As the recently released synopsis told us, it seems like a dark and dangerous adventure awaits the young smuggler, and that’s more or less what’s teased here. With a gritty tone and aesthetic that’s not too different than what we saw in Rogue One, this is certainly a far cry from what we thought we’d be getting, but we’re definitely curious to see more. That being said, it’s not a terribly impressive trailer and kind of lacks a solid hook, with the film almost feeling like it doesn’t have any real reason to exist.
Of course, all eyes are probably on Alden Ehrenreich at this point, who’s been tasked with delivering a younger version of Han Solo, arguably one of the greatest Star Wars characters of all-time – no pressure, then. And let’s face it, part of Solo’s charm was that his backstory largely remained under wraps throughout Lucasfilm’s original trilogy, so we can’t help but fear that Howard and Co. are at risk of ruining – or at the very least tarnishing – that sense of mystery.
Not to mention that from this footage alone, Ehrenreich isn’t exactly doing a great job of channeling Ford. He’s not bad, but he does seem a bit stiff in the role and has nowhere near the same charisma or cocksureness that the aforementioned actor does. True, it’d be a tough task for anyone to live up to what Ford did with the character, but so far, we’re not totally on board with Ehrenreich’s performance.
For now, we’ll just hold out hope that this is simply a bad trailer and not indicative of the final product. After all, there is some potential spotted throughout. A few of the set pieces promise to be pretty epic, the visuals look great and an exciting adventure is teased, with some kind of heist seemingly making up the main plot.
With any luck, Ron Howard has pieced together another thrilling entry into the saga with Solo: A Star Wars Story and we’ll patiently wait to see more from the pic before making a final judgement.