10 Things You Don't Know About Han Solo
“I'm captain of the Millennium Falcon.”
Han Solo: thief, gambler, scoundrel. He was a street rat on Corellia, an Imperial recruit, and a mud trooper. A smuggler for Jabba the Hutt. He followed a farmboy and an old fossil into the Death Star. Later, he became a general and a hero of the Rebel Alliance. He was a husband and a father and died on Starkiller Base, murdered by his own son.
You all know this, don’t you? But here are 10 things about Han Solo, that you (probably) don't know:
1. My Little Big Green Friend
Han Solo didn’t start out as a human. In the rough draft for "The Star Wars," which George Lucas wrote in 1974, he was a Ureallian, a big green alien with no nose and no ears, a member of the Jedi Bendu and a friend of General Skywalker. In later versions, he became a bearded human. And by the time the third draft was written (1975), Solo had already transformed into a James Dean kind of character, a cowboy in a spaceship.
2. Bloodlines
When John Mollo designed the pants for Han Solo for A New Hope, he added tuxedo-like stripes in the form of stitched segments on the sides, to give the trousers a more military look. From an in-universe perspective, these are Corellian bloodstripes, an award that was given out for special courage in dangerous situations. There were two classes of these bloodstripes: a second class with yellow stripes and first class with red stripes. Han had trousers with both classes of bloodstripes, although it was never officially disclosed how he earned them.
3. Always Two There Are
Star Wars loves trilogies, and Han Solo even got two book trilogies about him: the first one (though technically called The Han Solo Adventures), consisting of Han Solo at Star’s End, Han Solo’s Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, was written by Brian Daley and released 1979-1980. These books take place before the events of A New Hope in a part of the galaxy that is controlled by the Corporate Sector, a brutal organization standing in for the Empire. The second trilogy of books, aptly named The Han Solo Trilogy, was written by A. C. Crispin, released 1997-1998 and consisting of The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn. The stories of The Han Solo Adventures actually take place between Crispin’s books and are even referenced there. Some of the events that happen in the Han Solo Trilogy have been overwritten by the movies Solo and Rogue One.
4. Before The Princess
Before Leia, Solo loved Q’ira, but after Q’ira came Jenny. In a cut scene from A New Hope, shortly before Obi-Wan and Luke meet Han in the cantina, we can see the smuggler cuddling with a young woman. She never got an in-universe name and just goes by the name Jenny, based on the actress who played her, Jenny Cresswell. Their relationship didn’t seem to have gone well, as she is never ever mentioned again after this scene.
5. There Is Another
If you are inclined to believe Sana Starros, Leia Organa wasn’t Han Solo’s first wife. Starros, a smuggler herself and hailing from Nar Shadda, claims that she has been the wife of Han Solo some time before he met Leia. Solo always denied this, stating that the “marriage” was only part of a scam to carry out a robbery. Solo got away with Sana’s part of the bounty, but she later caught up with him, and their reunion was not a friendly one.
6. A Good Blaster At Your Side
Han’s beloved blaster pistol was a BlasTech DL-44 that he got from Tobias Becket and later modified himself, in order to draw faster. Although there were better weapons available, Han stuck with his DL-44 until the very end. In real life, the blaster was scrapped together by Roger Christian from an antique Mauser pistol and a modified barrel from the MG 81 machine gun.
7. Most Wanted
At the time this article is written, Han Solo has either appeared or at least been mentioned in 332 canon publications (books, audiobooks, comics, stories, video games) and 30 non-canon media. But this impressive number still pales compared to the 434 times that Han appeared or has been mentioned in the Legends continuity.
8. The Fastest Hunk of Junk in the Galaxy
Since his early years, Han was always fond of flying and fast spaceships. So, it’s no wonder that between the events of ANH and TESB, he took part in the Dragon Void Run, a dangerous race between three planets. Han participated in this race as part of an undercover mission to rescue a rebel spy. Later in his life, after he got married and Ben was born, he returned to his racing life both as a pilot and as a sponsor for young pilots. This absence from his family further estranged him from Leia.
9. No Prequel Character
At one point, when writing the screenplay for Episode III, George Lucas toyed with the idea of showing a young Han Solo living on Kashyyyk among Wookiees and assisting Yoda, when the Jedi Master fought there. The idea was ultimately abandoned, and there was never even a casting call for a really young Han Solo.
10. Heart of Gold
Even before he became a hero of the Rebel Alliance, Han had proven several times that he was a better man than he pretended to be. During his time at the Imperial academy, he got into a fight with a fellow cadet, Beilert Valance. Later, Han risked his own life to save Valance after he had been shot down in his TIE Fighter during a mission. Valance later became a cyborg and a bounty hunter.
Bonus: Captain Cargo
Strictly speaking, this is not a fact about Han Solo, but worth mentioning anyway, as a little bonus nugget:
When shooting the scene where the frozen Han Solo is put inside the Slave I at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Jeremy Bullock, who portrayed Boba Fett, got his line a little bit wrong, when he said, “Put Captain Cargo in the Solo hold.”