'Revenge of the Sith' Almost Had a Different Origin Story for Han Solo

When fans see the beloved smuggler in Solo: A Star Wars Story, they’ll watch the youngest version of Han Solo to ever appear in a Star Wars movie. But long, long ago (around 2005), we almost saw an even younger Han Solo in the prequel trilogy, specifically in Revenge of the Sith, which would have made Solo: A Star Wars Story almost impossible.

George Lucas’s original script for Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith featured a young Han Solo cameo that would have given the character a radically different origin story, making him an orphan raised among the hairy Wookies. Han Solo would have appeared as a 10-year-old child being raised by Chewbacca the planet Kashyyyk, which sounds weird as hell. Had this origin story been made canon by Revenge of the Sith, any other prequel like Solo would have to be radically different. Instead, with Solo we’ll see Han grow up on the streets of Correllia alongside Qi’ra, and he’ll meet Chewbacca for the first time during the events presented in the film.

In the original Revenge of the Sith script from George Lucas, a 10-year-old Han would have found a transmitter on a smashed droid during the Battle of Kashyyyk. He would have presented it to Yoda, and the Wookiees would have traced that back to its source to find General Grievous. So in a way, we would have had Han to thank for Obi-Wan’s victory over the droid general. This would have also been a convoluted way to show how whip-smart and resourceful Han was even at such a young age. But making him a young orphan on Kashyyyk wouldn’t have made much sense at all, and the whole thing sounds like pointless fan service. Which is probably why the scene was cut from the script and never filmed.

Granted, Kashyyyk is supposedly a major navigational point in the galaxy, which is why so much activity happened there during the war. It’s possible that in this alternate version of reality, Han’s parents were some kind of smugglers that died en route to some destination and died on Kashyyyk in some way. Maybe the whole situation could have mirrored Rey being orphaned by her drunk parents on Jakku.

No matter what the explanation could have been, including Han Solo in this way just wouldn’t have worked, especially because it would transform Han’s relationship with Chewbacca from partners in crime to some dude traveling around with his hairy dad.

Instead, we’ll get a much more interesting origin for the character when Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on May 25