Solo droid L3-37 and her big Star Wars movie surprise
This Solo character is new to us, but technically has been a part of five other Star Wars movies.
Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, Donald Glover as a young Lando Calrissian and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as droid L3-37.
We knew Solo: A Star Wars Story was going to feature legacy Star Wars characters Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), but there's technically another legacy character who's been hiding in plain sight in the new movie.
Consider this your warning that we're going to spoil a plot point of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and then go into how it connects to Star Wars movies as recent as The Last Jedi. Go check out some of our spoiler-free Solo stories and our spoiler-free review if you haven't seen the film yet.
We now know that L3-37, the rebellious droid with a fierce attitude and a focus on liberation, becomes the heart of the Millennium Falcon in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
After a brilliant sequence in which she liberates many other droids on Kessel while Han, Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) and Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) steal coaxium fuel, she gets shot during the ensuing firefight.
A heartbroken Lando attempts to rescue her upper torso and head and gets shot in the arm himself and both are ultimately rescued by Chewbacca. But for L3 it's too late, and she shuts down, asking Lando "What's happening to me?"
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
But even though L3's original robot body fails, Lando is able to upload her into the Millennium Falcon's navigation system, making her a permanent part of the ship.
And as pointed out by Nerdist, her presence might get a shout-out during The Empire Strikes Back, during which C-3P0 says to Han, regarding the Falcon, "Sir, I don't know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect."
While that confirmation hasn't been made explicit, the idea that L3 has been guiding the Falcon for decades, running through the events of A New Hope all the way to The Last Jedi where Rey now steers the ship with Chewie, is fantastic. It gives me hope Phoebe Waller-Bridge might get a chance to reprise her voice role in a Solo sequel or perhaps 2019's Episode 9.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is now in theaters worldwide.
