【Glorious】

Like many people who are Gloriousalive and have eyes, I’m a Star Wars fan. It’s an easy thing to love, what with the family drama, space fencing, and relatively straightforward good-vs.-evil storylines. I adore the new and old trilogies and have a place in my heart for a combined forty-seven minutes of all three prequel movies, which is more than a lot of people will give them.

Still, I’m not excited for a Solo: A Star Wars Story. I wasn’t thrilled when they announced it, I’ve remained neutral through its turbulent creation, and now that its theatrical release is imminent, I’m faced with the reality that the sweet, sweet hype a Star Warsmovie usually generates within me simply isn’t going to show up. I don’t feel negatively — I feel nothing, and that upsets me.

What is is about Solothat’s leaving me numb? I adore Harrison Ford’s Han in the original and new trilogies and will never forgive his handsome, bullshit son for shanking him in The Force Awakens. It may be my unshakeable loyalty to Ford’s grumpy, roguish performance that makes me wary of Alden Ehrenreich taking on the character, even if some reviews are saying he does an admirable job. I appreciate Han Solo in the original trilogy because he shows up fully formed, pissed off, and thoroughly explained in his characterization. The Han of A New Hopeis a ruthless jerk who shoots first and takes pleasure in creating his own legend — to clarify his mysterious background feels to me like sucking some of the fun out of his character, and no amount of promised charm from a new actor playing a fresh-faced version of him is interesting to me.

In the vein of promises, there’s nothing so far that shows that Solois out to answer any questions I have remaining about the Star Warsuniverse. Rogue Onespent two hours and thirteen minutes fixing a plot hole about the Death Star, which happened to be something I’d spent a lot of time already thinking about. Rogue Oneexpanded the story to show that likeable people surrendered their lives to give the original heroes the chance they needed to set the plot in motion, and it gave the original trilogy a new sense of gravity — Leia’s interrogation becomes braver when the audience recalls that Jyn, Cassian, and K2 died to give her the information she is keeping from Darth Vader, and Luke’s Force-assisted shot at Galen Urso’s eff-you flaw in the Death Star transforms from a momentary victory to the bittersweet culmination of a grander sacrifice. What is Sologoing to transform about the original trilogy? Han critically doesn’t care about the rebellion until the end of A New Hope, so there’s not much impact he can have on the greater arc of the Skywalker saga in this new story. My fandom-oriented brain craves a universe that connects, not a scattered collection of stories that exist for their own sake.

Actually, I might be a hypocrite. There is one thing about Solothat I am cautiously excited about and my anticipation for it would 100% negate my previous statement about not wanting a disparate story. I am deeply interested in the further adventures of Lando Calrissian. Maybe I’m bored with the idea of Solo: A Star Wars Story because it is not Lando: A Star Warsstory, and while I generally poo-poo those who criticize one thing for not being another, entirely different thing, I think the decision to do a Han Solo movie before a Lando movie may have been a misstep regarding giving the fans (OK, me, specifically me) what they (I) want from Star Wars.

Lando is a character who we know from The Empire Strikes Backrose from being a gambler and a scoundrel to running Cloud City, a beautiful floating citadel in the sky. That story could show a lot about how opportunities for social and economic mobility functioned under the empire and perhaps shed light on why Lando was willing to sell Han and Leia out to Jabba and Darth Vader. Concept art for Cloud City fromStar Wars Art: Ralph McQuarriealso shows that George Lucas and Ralph McQuarrie intended for Cloud City to be primarily populated with black and brown–skinned humans in elaborate, beautiful costumes...which sounds like a Lando movie would be the closest Star Warscomes to replicating some elements of Disney’s recent afrocentric hit Black Panther. My hype for Space Black Pantherwould be higher than Cloud City itself (which, incidentally, has an elevation of 36660.9 miles). Instead, to continue with the Marvel comparison, Star Warsis giving us the emotional equivalent of a Captain Americaprequel that’s about Skinny Steve getting his ass kicked all over Brooklyn and ends way before he gets superpowers.

Listen, am I going to see Solo? Yes, obviously. Necessary or not, it’s still Star Warsand fandom means no movie gets left behind. It’s probably going to be a very fun film to watch, and it will likely charm me more than my grouchy self deserves. I’m more angry at myself than I am at any studio or decision-maker; I wish I could be more generous when I’m served with a slice of movie pie that’s not my favorite flavor. Still, I’m a day away from a new release in one of my favorite movie franchises and I can’t bring myself to feel that fan-loving spark. Maybe I’m just getting old. I hope it’s just Solo.