Going Solo is the way ahead for Star Wars

WHEN Disney bought Lucas Films and Star Wars six years ago, we all wondered where they would take the blockbuster franchise.

The latest Star Wars movie, out this week, shows they are willing to take it way into the future, but are not afraid to take us deep into its past, too.

Han Solo, the main character, has always been one of Star Wars’ chief strengths, and now we get to see his adventures from his days as a young man.

Solo and Chewbacca, his Wookiee sidekick and co-pilot, is with him all the way as he we see how Solo first met Lando Calrissian, the guy who first owned starship Millennium Falcon and lost it to Solo in a bet.

Don’t worry – if you are not up to date with Star Wars, or have never even seen one of the movies, you only have the eight films to watch, plus this one and the ninth Star Wars coming out next year, to catch up.

So far, Walt Disney have shown with the success of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that they can defy the odds and build on what was one of cinema’s most consistent high earners.

The trick, of course, is to keep giving the whole thing a boost with something fresh, seeing the whole thing from a new angle, and this latest one promises to do just that.

It’s directed by Ron Howard, who you probably knew first as Richie in Happy Days, although he was still a tiny tot when his TV acting roles began and says he knew even then that directing would be his eventual future.

Howard has shown a talent for directing all kinds of movies, and with Lucasfilm producing and the power of Disney behind them, it would have been quite a feat to come up with a stinker.

This is the second Star Wars anthology film, after 2016’s Rogue One, and Alden Ehrenreich plays Solo.

He began acting at school, and among his early movies were ones with Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, two gents who know a good actor when they see one.

Like Howard, Ehrenreich seems to enjoy a very wide variety of work, and early reviews from the United States suggest they have come up with a very valuable addition to the whole Star Wars canon.

Believed to have signed up for three Star Wars movies, Ehrenreich was initially seduced by very different kinds of film stars – a certain Groucho, Harpo and Chico.

“When I was a little kid, my parents would show me Marx Brothers films and westerns and stuff like that,” he recalls.

“That’s where all my desire to become an actor comes from, and probably most of my understanding of acting, for sure.”

He also has a deep love of his trade, and reckons cinema is still the best place to tell a story that the public can relate to.

“I think movies are the most popular form of storytelling ever and have such a huge impact on culture when they do,” he says.

“I really want to be a part of those movies that say something good to a lot of people.”

Modestly, he reckons the variety of his roles is down to one plain and simple fact.

“I haven’t worked enough to worry about getting typecast,” he says. “If I tried to wrap my head around the fact that Francis Ford Coppola directed my first movie, there isn’t a slot into which that fits in your mind.”

Solo: A Star Wars Story is in UK cinemas from Thursday, May 24.