Disney CEO Bob Iger recently claimed that he consulted with filmmakers about the idea of killing Han Solo in The Force Awakens prior to J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy making the official decision.
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The debut of The Force Awakens brought along with it many nostalgic memories of audiences’ first experiences seeing Star Wars on the big screen. In addition to nostalgia, the Abrams-directed film brought along with it many surprises, with Han Solo’s death being one of the biggest shocks.
“We had a big debate about Han Solo,” Iger told Vanity Fair. “Should he die or not? It was a decision made by Kennedy and Abrams, but I got involved.”
Iger’s comments confirm just how bold of a direction it was for the saga to take, with the decision leaving the hands of the filmmaker and even Lucasfilm themselves to bring in the head of Disney. Luckily, they were able to move forward with their decision to provide one of the most tragic scenes in the whole saga.
Earlier this year, some of Iger’s comments about Han Solo resulted in some very confused reactions from fans when he claimed the upcoming Han Solo spinoff would show how the pilot got his name. The insinuation in his comments were in relation to his actual name as opposed to adopting a name, but merely misspoke when explaining the film would show how the pilot made a name for himself.
“I’m not sure that that’s entirely what Bob meant. There’s more to Han Solo’s name, but it’s not that it’s not his name. It’s obviously his name. It will always be his name,” Kathleen Kennedy clarified to MTV about the miscommunication.
When a Marvel comic revealed that the smuggler actually had a wife that audiences were unaware of, it proved that there’s very much we didn’t know about the character, so having a different birth name was something entirely possible.
The next chapter in the saga, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, premieres in theaters December 15.
[H/T Polygon]
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Image Courtesy of Lucasfilm
