In what was a memorable scene in Solo: A Star Wars Story (one of many memorable scenes), we witnessed the origin of Han’s surname, and how he got it. Now, via Cinemablend, we learn that the Disney CEO Bob Iger greenlit the film on the basis of having that one scene explained to him.
Lawrence Kasdan gives the lowdown.
Five years ago, when I came onto the thing — and Disney wasn’t on when I came on, then three weeks later, they owned the company — and they came up to Marin [California] and Kathy [Kennedy] got the people who were already working on it to make a five-minute presentation to Bob Iger and Alan Horn and everyone.
My presentation was, [Han] comes to an immigration spot and someone asks, ‘What’s your name?’ It’s not just that he doesn’t have a name, which tells you a lot about his history. He says ‘I have no people.’ That to me is so forlorn and so isolating and rife, and the guy fills in his name. Bob Iger said ‘Alright, I’m in.’ That was it.
That was the moment. He reacted to it the way I reacted to it, which was, it’s very moving. This was a guy who has nothing. Someone plants a name on him. He doesn’t even know the guy. It sticks for the rest of the saga.