Solo : A Star Wars Story Solo : A Star Wars Story is an upcoming stand - alone " Star Wars " film directed by Ron Howard from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan , scheduled for release on May 25 , 2018 . It stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo in the years prior to . Donald Glover portrays Lando Calrissian and Joonas Suotamo portrays Chewbacca . Woody Harrelson , Emilia Clarke , Thandie Newton , and Phoebe Waller - Bridge also star . The film was first announced as a Han Solo picture in 2015 , along with the news that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller would be the film ' s directors . Principal photography began in January 2017 , after which point creative differences arose between the two directors and the studio . They were replaced by Ron Howard , who was tasked with completing principal photography along with what was reported to be extensive reshoots . Official description . " Board the " Millennium Falcon " and journey to a galaxy far , far away in " Solo : A Star Wars Story " , an all - new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy . Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld , Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian , in a journey that will set the course of one of the " Star Wars " saga ' s most unlikely heroes . " Development . Origins . The earliest incarnation of a live - action depiction of young Han Solo came during the pre - production of . Writer and director George Lucas conceived an idea of Solo as a child on Kashyyyk , with Chewbacca raising the young boy like a son . Solo would have been present during the Battle of Kashyyyk and would have encountered Yoda , helping the Jedi Master discover scraps of a droid that could have aided Yoda in determining the whereabouts of General Grievous . Concept art from Iain McCaig showed the young Solo as a slob , a juxtaposition of the character in his later years . " He ' s such a persnickety guy later — he always has to have the best of everything , " McCaig said in " " , " so I thought it ' d be great if when he was a kid , he was an absolute slob . " These concepts never made it out of pre - production , and Solo did not appear in " Revenge of the Sith " — though Chewbacca ultimately did make a cameo appearance during the battle . After the release of " Revenge of the Sith " , Lucas began planning a live - action television series called " " , set between " Revenge of the Sith " and " A New Hope " . The series , dealing with elements of the criminal underworld , could have included some of Solo ' s backstory . According to Stephen Scaia , one of the writers of the ultimately unproduced series , the show ' s writers came up with a story for how Solo met Chewbacca . Another story would have dealt with how Solo first met Lando Calrissian , who first appeared in . Pre - production . Ideas for a young Han Solo film began to percolate in the lead up to The Walt Disney Company ' s acquisition to Lucasfilm . In October 2012 , as Lucas was preparing to sell his company , Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy contacted Lawrence Kasdan , writer of " The Empire Strikes Back " and co - writer of , and asked him to meet her and Lucas to discuss new films in the franchise . Kasdan recounted that Lucas had already come up with some basic ideas for the sequel trilogy and had also come up with the concept of stand - alone films . One of those movies was about young Han Solo , before the events of " A New Hope " . Kasdan was initially hesitant on being part of the new films , but he decided he could do the Han Solo movie as Solo was his favorite character . After agreeing to the job , Kasdan was also asked to help develop what would become . Once he had completed work on that film , Kasdan felt creativly drained , so he asked his son Jon to assist in developing the Han Solo film . The Kasdans worked on the script for nine months , during which they were inspired by , , and various films by the . Meanwhile , Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were hired to direct . Lord and Miller tested several thousand actors for the part before settling on Alden Ehrenreich , who had been the first person to audition . According to Miller , they didn ' t want an impersonation of Harrison Ford , but " someone who could evoke the spirit of the iconic performance we all remember while bringing something new and fresh . " Ehrenreich was officially announced during Celebration Europe . He ( and later , Ron Howard ) met with Harrison Ford to discuss the character , and Lucasfilm sent Ford a copy of the script for his approval . Once Ehrenreich was cast , certain parts of the script were revised to be tailored to his voice ; The final script also incorporated contributions from Lord , Miller and ( later ) Howard . As Jon Kasdan told " SFX " magazine , " I think ultimately the movie that you ' ll see is truly a product of the five of us all coming together in this weird way to tell this story . " Production . Principal photography began in January 2017 , with a working title of " " Star Wars : Red Cup " . " By March , a film crew was present in , . One of the three rewards in the 2017 " Force for Change " fundraiser was a role in the film . On June 20 , 2017 , Lucasfilm announced that directors Lord and Miller were departing from the project due to creative differences and that a new director would be announced soon . " Entertainment Weekly " reported that Lord and Miller encouraged an improvisational style on set , which Lucasfilm insiders believed was moving the film away from the vision crafted by the Kasdans in their script and ended up significantly changing the story . Lucasfilm believed that these apparent issues could be fixed during reshoots , but Lord and Miller were reportedly reluctant to significantly alter their approach to the film . As a result , Kennedy made the decision to remove Lord and Miller from the production . On June 22 , it was announced by Lucasfilm that Ron Howard would take over directorial duties for the film . Howard had worked on three previous Lucasfilm projects : 1973 ' s " " , 1979 ' s " " and 1988 ' s " Willow " ( which starred " Star Wars " veteran Warwick Davis , who also makes a cameo in the Han Solo film ) . After the announcement , Howard said that he had been a fan of " Star Wars " since the beginning and that he found it " gratifying to be asked to lend my voice to the [ Star Wars ] universe . " Michael Kenneth Williams was originally cast in the film but was unavailable for the reshoots , so he was replaced by Paul Bettany . George Lucas visited the set at one point , and helped direct a scene . On October 14 , it was announced that screenwriter Jon Kasdan and first assistant director Toby Hefferman would portray Tag and Bink , two characters that first appeared in the " Star Wars " comics published by Dark Horse Comics . On October 17 , Ron Howard confirmed that production had wrapped up , and he officially announced the title of the film would be " Solo : A Star Wars Story " . By March 30 , 2018 , the editing and score were finished , and post - production had ended by April 22 . John Powell composed the score and John Williams contributed a new theme . Marketing and release . " Solo : A Star Wars Story " will debut at the on May 15 , 2018 , and is scheduled for wide release on May 25 ( the 41st anniversary of the release of " A New Hope " , in which Harrison Ford first appeared as Han Solo ) . A TV spot aired during , followed by a full teaser trailer the next day and the release of a series of character - themed teaser posters ; The release of the latter prompted a complaint from a French artist , Hachim Bahous , that the design of the posters was a plagiarization of a series of covers he designed for Sony Music for French album releases . A side - by - side post demonstrated that the posters and covers feature nearly identical colorization for both the background and character / album names , as well as a similar font . A theatrical trailer and poster were released on April 8 , with the former debuting during " " . Tickets became available for pre - sale beginning on May 3 , and sold second to " Infinity War " among 2018 releases . The film ' s opening weekend is estimated to be $ 170 million . Lucasfilm arranged " Solo " licensing deals with , , , , and . Denny ' s aired a commercial that utilized props , characters and a set from the film . On April 23 , a lawsuit was filed by Ren Ventures , who hold the trademark for the card game Sabacc , against Lucasfilm and Denny ' s " Star Wars " card game after Sabacc was featured in promotion for the film . The French car company also aired an ad showcasing the film ' s train sequence . The " Solo " merchandise line debuted in stores on April 13 . The film was spotlighted in the February and April 2018 issues of " " , the 300th issue of " " , and the June 2018 issue of " " . Ron Howard appeared on " " and " " , and Donald Glover hosted the May 5 episode of " Saturday Night Live " . The video games " " and " " will be updated with " Solo " - related content .