We now have a much better idea of when Star Wars prequel Solo is set
The newest Star Wars story will be one of the oldest
After months with no information about upcoming Star Wars spin-off Solo, we’re now awash with details about its characters, storyline and – in new revelations – its setting, with the prequel film revealed to be one of the earliest films in the Star Wars canon.
You see, a newly-updated timeline from one of LucasFilm’s book partners Del Rey has put the film (or at least, its novelisation) in position related to all the other movies, and what has long been suspected has now been confirmed – Solo takes place a while before previous standalone Rogue One: A Star Wars story, which makes sense given that film’s events lead directly up to the opening moments of the original 1977 Star Wars.
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However, the new film will also take place earlier than popular animated series Star Wars Rebels, which follows a group of anti-Empire fighters who occasionally run into younger versions of the original trilogy cast.
This means that Solo will be our first onscreen depiction of life under the earlier years of the Empire (ie, after they took over in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith), down to a very specific time period – the film takes place some time after the novel Tarkin, set 14 years before the original 1977 Star Wars, but before A New Dawn, another novel set 11 years before it.
This means Solo will be set in the three-year period between the two stories, around the time Luke Skywalker would have been at most eight years old.
So there you have it – despite being the very newest Star Wars film, Solo is also one of the oldest. Clear as mud.
Solo: A Star Wars story will be released in UK cinemas on 25th May
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
