Star Wars: Rogue One Co-Writer Wants to Kill Dash Rendar

One of the writers of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wants the chance to kill a fan-favorite [...]

By Jamie Lovett

One of the writers of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wants the chance to kill a fan-favorite expanded universe character. A fan on Twitter asked Gary Whitta if he'd be interested in writing a Star Wars movie about Dash Rendar, the Corellian pilot from Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Whitta replied with a question. "Can I kill him?" he asked. "If so yes." That's almost a shame. Shazam! star Zachary Levi revealed in a recent post that Dash Rendar is the character he'd like to play in the Star Wars universe. Whether he'd be interested in killing Dash is another story.

Lucasfilm created Dash Rendar for the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire multimedia project in 1996. In the story, which is now relegated to non-canon Legends status, Rendar is a hotshot pilot who teams up with Luke and Leia between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, while Han Solo was stuck in carbonite.

While Shadows of the Empire was removed from canon along with the rest of the expanded universe materials, Rendar does exist in the new Star Wars canon. He's mentioned in the Solo: A Star Wars Story tie-in book Tales From Vandor. The book is presented as the journal of the bartender Midnight, who got to know some of the Star Wars universe's most popular scoundrels during his time on Vandor, including Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. The journal includes an entry where Midnight recalls a conversation with Dash Rendar about Han and Chewbacca, noting that Rendar believed Chewie to be the brains of the duo.

Here's what Rendar said, according to Midnight: "Han got that route from Chewie. And Chewie got it from the Wookiee scouts who helped the Republic back in the Clone Wars. Next time Hans's here, ask him and watch how fast he changes the subject. Han Solo, ha. If I'm around, you don't need that guy."

Dash Rendar has always been a divisive figure from the expanded universe. Some fans see him as a Han Solo knockoff, created to fill in for Han during the Shadows of the Empire story. Others grew fond of him while reading Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire novel or playing as him in the Shadows of the Empire video game for Nintendo 64.

Would you like to see a Dash Rendar Star Wars movie? Or would you prefer he be forgotten? Let us know in the comments.

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