With The Force Awakens, audiences witnessed Kylo Ren kill his father Han Solo, yet with this occurring towards the end of the film, we didn’t see the ramifications of the beloved character’s death. In The Last Jedi, Han’s death was only briefly mentioned, as the focus of the story was the urgency of all of the events unfolding between the Resistance and the First Order. Writer/director Rian Johnson confirmed that Han’s funeral wasn’t addressed because he was too focused on pushing the story forward.
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“[There was no debate of showing Han Solo‘s funeral], just because pacing-wise it didn’t have a place,” Johnson confirmed during a recent Q&A. “It’s tough in Star Wars because I always think about the mourning that Luke gives to Ben’s death, which is all of four-and-a-half seconds before, ‘Come on kid we’re not out of this yet’ and then boom, you’re into ‘Yay, woo-hoo! Don’t get cocky!’ There’s the moment for it, but it’s not long. We don’t have time for our sorrows, commanders. That’s kind of the thing of Star Wars; you don’t really linger on grief because you’re moving forward.”
The filmmaker might not have found a way to depict the memorial organically, but instead chose various other character moments to show how the loss of Han impacted those closest to him.
“I really held onto that moment of Leia before they come out of hyperspace, just that moment of feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders…,” Johnson pointed out. “It was never something where there was an organic place for it like, ‘Oh it would go here.’ It was always something like, ‘We wanna get this right up on our feet and going from the start‘.”
For fans who were disappointed that Han didn’t get to have a proper sendoff, Johnson and author of The Last Jedi novelization Jason Fry recently revealed that the book will feature the funeral, in addition to other new and extended scenes.
“Rian Johnson and I had an amazing conversation. We got to write entirely new scenes for the book,” Fry told The Star War Wars Show. “Han Solo’s funeral, Rose and Paige Tico together and further explorations of the fascinating world of Canto Bight, to name just a few.”
The novelization is currently available for pre-order and will hit shelves on March 6.
The Last Jedi is in theaters now.
[H/T Collider]
