Solo: A Star Wars Story explored the early years of Han Solo, while also introducing brand-new characters like Qi’ra, Beckett, and L3-37. Lando’s droid ally has been the topic of much conversation following the film’s release, with director Ron Howard teasing what the future holds for the character.
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WARNING: Spoilers below for Solo: A Star Wars Story
During their mission on Kessel, L3-37 was critically injured and effectively died. Her cohorts acted quickly to implant her memory systems into the Millennium Falcon, ensuring that the droid would live on for years to come.
Some audiences have wondered if this means that L3-37’s personality has remained in the ship up through the events of The Last Jedi, though Howard teased that Lando possibly removed her personality.
“Is there some way that Lando could rebuild L3? One would hope, wouldn’t you,” Howard questioned with Empire. “Maybe the Falcon gets to keep a bit of that super-intelligence but Lando could maybe, somehow, someday find his way to reconstructing L3.”
The character was often described as being a self-made droid, with the events of Solo proving that she could inhabit more than one form. L3-37 might not have earned as much screen time as the other heroes in the film, though her demise has become one of the film’s most controversial elements.
Throughout Solo, L3-37 champions for droid autonomy, from attempting to break up an underground droid battle circuit to removing restraining bolts from worker droids on Kessel. While uploading her personality into the Falcon might have seemed like a clever way for the character to live on, some audiences took offense at the implications of the character’s future.
The implication that L3-37 had become nothing more than a navigational system in the Falcon, essentially stripping away all of her autonomy, was considered the worst possible fate the character could have endured by fans of the character. No longer able to create her own thoughts or opinions, being imprisoned in a ship that traded owners multiple times would be even crueler than death, as she had no means of escaping the ship on her own accord.
Hopefully Howard’s comments can alleviate some of the anger from fans who know that L3 deserved to be more than a navigational system and that she merely influenced the future of the Falcon without being shackled to it.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now.
Do you think L3-37 will escape the Falcon? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
[H/T Empire]
