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Behind the scenes of Solo: A Star Wars Story, thanks to the writer

Writer Jon Kasdan offers a long list of fascinating facts about Han Solo's origin story.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Jonathan Olley

How did Bram Stoker, River Phoenix and HP Lovecraft influence Solo: A Star Wars Story, and how was Thandie Newton too good for the movie? Writer Jon Kasdan reveals all in a list of facts and notes about the movie.

On Friday, Kasdan shared  Star Wars  facts on Twitter "in lieu of a commentary" as the digital release of Solo arrives for your home entertainment. Spoilers abound as Kasdan -- who shares the final writing credit on the movie with his father, Lawrence Kasdan -- dives into the story and the decisions made behind the scenes in his list of "52 Useless Solo Factoids and Tid-bits for Anyone Who's Interested."

Kasdan refers to "C&P," the film's original writing and directing duo Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. "RH" refers to director Ron Howard, who took over the reins after the producers very publicly parted company with Miller and Lord. Kasdan tactfully steers clear of the difficulties we assume happened, but nonetheless provides a fascinating look at how a film gets made. 

In addition to giving a glimpse into some of the details in the film itself -- such as the inclusion of a surprise cameo for Darth Maul and the background for Phoebe Waller-Bridge's charming L3 droid -- the list offers insight into the filmmaking process. We learn that even on a big-money Star Wars blockbuster, there's horse-trading over budgets. And we get a glimpse of the give-and-take collaboration among writers, directors, editors and others.  

Solo: A Star Wars Story is available digitally now and comes out on Blu-ray and DVD on 25 September. Although there's no commentary overlay for the movie, the release does include a discussion with Howard and the stars, a documentary about the writing process, featurettes and deleted scenes.

As a bonus, here's a still of one of those deleted scenes showing Han Solo as an Imperial Cadet, along with costume designer Glynn Dillon and various other crew members in the shot.

And this clip describing work done for Chewbacca's sounds.

Along with a deleted scene featuring a snowball fight.

First published Sept. 14, 2018 at 6:43 a.m. PT.
Update Sept. 16 at 3:50 p.m. PT: Adds clips.

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