Rumor: The Han Solo Movie Is Looking For A Non-White Female Lead
The Star Wars saga has grown increasingly diverse over the past few years, which a welcome transformation for a series that has generally defaulted to one token woman and one token black guy in each trilogy. Star Wars: The Force Awakens put Daisy Ridley and John Boyega front-and-center in heroic roles and the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story features one of the most ethnically diverse casts ever assembled outside of a Fast and Furious movie. It's a welcome change of pace for a universe that has otherwise been dominated by white guys for nearly forty years.
This trend looks to continue in the upcoming Han Solo spin-off movie, as it seems that Lucasfilm and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are on the hunt for a non-white female lead to join star Alden Ehrenreich.
This should be filed under "rumor and speculation" territory for now until we hear something official, but this little piece of news comes our way courtesy of Mashable's Jeff Sneider, who has landed his fair share of accurate scoops over the years. Grab that grain of salt and all, but I'd bet on there being truth to this:
Interesting article. Last I heard, HAN SOLO search for female lead was down to 4 girls... and they weren't white. https://t.co/GTCDqzz1Rs
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) August 10, 2016
However, the news here isn't just "another actor of color may be joining the Han Solo movie" (a young Lando Calrissian, possibly to be played by Donald Glover, will have a role as well). The news here could suggest that a character who was created in the pages of Marvel's new Star Wars comic series may be leaping into live action.
Enter Sana Solo...or Sana Starros, depending on when you're catching up with her. Originally introduced by writer Jason Aaron and artist John Cassaday in Star Wars #4 last year, Sana is a skilled pilot with a shaky moral compass who's handy with a blaster and may or not be married to Han Solo. It's complicated.
The short version (and this is a spoiler for anyone looking to eventually catch up with this consistently good and canon series) is that Sana "married" Han as part of a cover for a job they pulled off years earlier. It's just that one of them took it a little more seriously than the other. Thus, a love triangle between Sana, Han, and Leia was born.
It would be irresponsible to say that Sana will be in the Han Solo movie. There's no evidence of this beyond the fact that Sana is black woman and the next film is seeking a non-white actress. However, the fact that Rogue One features Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera (a character who was originally introduced in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series) is proof that Lucasfilm isn't afraid to blur the lines between various mediums and connect the Star Wars universe like never before. A year ago, I would have thought that Sana would only exist in the pages of the Star Wars comics. Now, it feels like any character across the entire saga could potentially show up in a movie.
The still-untitled Han Solo movie is scheduled for a May 25, 2018 release date.