On February 5th the first teaser trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story was released following the debut of the TV spot during Super Bowl LII.

The movie, which is directed by Ron Howard and stars Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover and Emilia Clarke, provided our first glimpse of new characters and of course Han himself.

The story line is mooted by Woody Harrelson’s character who says to Han “Hey kid, I’m putting together a crew.”

So it’s safe to assume that we’ll be introduced to Han via a heist of some kind. But the film also has to establish his application to join the Imperial Navy, and subsequent prompt exit from said navy.

Perhaps we’ll see the movie jump ahead a few years as Han becomes reacquainted with Emilia Clarke’s character Qi’ra after the pair appear to have moved in separate directions since their first meeting.

Whether Qi’ra’s role is that of a friend, confidant or romantic interest is yet to be seen. But surely any attempt to create a new romantic interest is treading on dangerous ground.

Ehrenreich as Han

Unfortunately the question on everyone’s lips – how would Ehrenreich live up to the persona of Han Solo – wasn’t answered affirmatively.

While it’s difficult to judge a character on the basis of just one trailer – the success of this movie in no small part will depend on Alden’s performance.

Purely based on this trailer the Han we know wasn’t the Han we saw on screen. So what’s going on?

Clearly Alden has decided to avoid simply giving his best Harrison Ford impression – and rightly so. This character will need to stand on his own two feet if we are to believe in him.

But this is where the challenge truly lies. For many of us Star Wars exists in our memories and that is why it’s so exciting to potentially relive the magic of our childhoods.

Han’s character is burnt into our memory but in fact we know very little about him. In Episodes four to six we see how a brash, thick-skinned smuggler changes as he slowly realises his allegiance lies with the rebellion.

But do we want to see this softer Han in the prequel? For his later transformation to have meaning surely we need to see the brash Han that managed to keep himself alive all those years running contraband for the Hutts.

Mixed reaction

While a new Star Wars film is still exciting, franchise fatigue is already setting in.

The normally effervescent Jeremy Jahns was surprisingly reserved in his review while Grace Randolph’s Beyond the Trailer review found equal amounts to “really like” and “really hate.”

Tyrone Magnus provided one of the most positive reactions to Han and Chewie’s return, noting the excitement he felt when hearing the roar of the Millenium Falcon again. “Might be pretty damn good!” he exclaimed.

A world of possibilities

The trailer sets up many new and exciting possibilities. A cynic might say that were in not for Chewie it would be indiscernible from any other sci-fi film.

However we are now entering the post skywalker era and we’ll have to get used to stories that don’t include X-Wings, the Force, Jedi and the Skywalker family.

Star Wars 2.0 here we come.