“HAN FIRST SHOT” — Young Han Solo Movie Starts Production

Chris Miller via Twitter(LOS ANGELES) — With a snapshot of a movie clapper board and the clever caption “HAN FIRST SHOT” — a take on the Star Wars fan gripe “Han Shot First” — Chris Miller has let everyone know that he and co-director Phil Lord’s production of the movie about Han Solo’s younger days is now underway. 

Also clever: the movie’s on-set code name, Red Cup. Get it?  Solo?  As in Red Solo Cup?

Alden Ehrenreich stars as a younger version of the scoundrel famously played by Harrison Ford in the Star Wars movies.

Not much is known about the plot of the project, except that a young Lando Calrissian figures into it — with Atlanta‘s Donald Glover playing Solo’s frenemy — and that it’s likely Solo’s early days as an orphan pickpocket will be shown.  As previously reported, Woody Harrelson has been cast as unlikely mentor for the pilot and Rebellion hero-to-be.  

In other Star Wars news, Rian Johnson, director of Star Wars: Episode VIIIlinked via Twitter to a song from The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle called “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones.” It started as a joke about what Luke has been up to while in self-exile on an island, but “now it’s canon,” Johnson joked.

As its title suggests, the song follows a Jedi master who has taken on all comers, leaving, “Jedi bones piled high like parsnips on his plate.”

Star Wars: Episode VII — The Last Jedi hits theaters in December, while the Han Solo stand-alone film opens in May of 2018. Both movies are from Lucasfilm, which like ABC News, is owned by Disney.

Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.