The expanded universe of Star Wars has been removed from the official canon, but that hasn't stopped it from influencing the new entries in the franchise. Seeing Grand Admiral Thrawn return on Star Wars Rebels is one thing, but Ron Howard just revealed a pair of Star Wars characters that will be joining the Han Solo movie that we never thought we'd see on screen, the hapless comic book duo of Tag and Bink.
If you're not familiar with Tag and Bink, they're a pair of rebels who were the focus of a short comic book series from the early 2000s. Tag and Bink Are Dead, was, quite obviously, based on the Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and it saw the pair off on their own personal adventure, which just so happened to cross over with many of the major characters and events of the previous Star Wars trilogies.
Even before the Star Wars expanded universe was given the boot by Disney, the books featuring Tag and Bink were never really considered canon. And yet, it appears that the characters will become so in the new Star Wars movie about Han Solo. Ron Howard tweeted out the picture of the two, possibly in disguise as Imperial officers, with the hashtag to tell us who they are.
What's possibly more interesting, however, is an exchange that follows the tweet. Kevin Rubio, the writer of the original comic series apparently wasn't aware that his creations were going to make their feature film debut until he saw Ron Howard's tweet. We then get to see a little bit about how the characters made it into the movie. Apparently, Han Solo movie screenwriter Jon Kasdan is a fan of the books and so not only did he decide to put them in the movie, he's playing one of the roles, with the film's first assistant director Toby Hefferman playing the other part.
With the roles being played by a writer and a director, we're guessing that Tag and Bink's appearance will be little more than walk-ons. It's possible that they may just be background characters who are only identified as Tag and Bink in the credits. Although, if they do something on screen to show off who they are, even something that only comic book fans would recognize, that would be pretty cool.
The reveal of Tag and Bink in the Han Solo movie is yet another example of Ron Howard giving us information about the movie, without actually saying anything about it. The major details of the upcoming film are still shrouded in mystery, but we'll be keeping our eyes open when these two make their big screen debut next May.
