How far back does the idea for a Solo movie reach? Quite a way back apparently, as Lawrence Kasdan explains to io9. The seeds of what would become Solo: A Star Wars Story reach right back to before the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm, before Episode VII.
“I got involved right before [the acquisition]. No one knew about Disney. That was a total shock and surprise. About three weeks after I came into it, my wife and I were in a restaurant and this news came. It’s like ‘What? Now I’m suddenly working for Disney?’”
While being involved in an Episode VII story group, Kasdan was brought on primarily to work on a solo Solo movie.
“I had signed on only to do Han. But I agreed to be a consultant on Episode VII which had no name and no director. And we were in a room at the Ranch saying ‘What should this trilogy be?’ Then I went off to write Han but kept being dragged back into Force Awakens.”
Poor thing, that must have been a chore! Interesting then, that Kasdan’s involvement should reach back to pre-Disney acquisition days, when George was presumably priming the company to be submerged into the larger Disney whole in 2012.
