Our time with Harrison Ford as Han Solo ended in The Force Awakens when the beloved smuggler was killed by his own son, but the character still has at least one more cinematic appearance lined up. Alden Ehrenreich is taking over as Han for Solo: A Star Wars Story, which has already been scheduled to hit theaters in late May for quite some time. However, word has come in that that the second Star Wars spinoff movie will have its world premiere a little over a week earlier at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
While the Cannes Film Festival is still putting together its lineup of competing movies, Deadline reports that Lucasfilm has organized a special screening of Solo: A Star Wars Story for Thursday, May 15, 10 days before the public is able to watch it. Solo is the first of the Disney-era Star Wars movies to be screened at Cannes, as The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi all premiered in Los Angeles. However, the Star Wars franchise as a whole is no stranger to having a presence at Cannes, as both 2002's Attack of the Clones and 2005's Revenge of the Sith both screened at the festival. The Cannes Film Festival runs this year from May 8-19, and today it was announced that the event will open with Everybody Knows, which stars Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
The Cannes Film Festival's bread and butter certainly isn't blockbusters like Solo: A Star Wars Story, but along with the aforementioned prequel Star Wars movies, the event has debuted other kinds of major motion pictures, like Shrek, X-Men: The Last Stand and Up. Plus, in recent years studios have been more willing to screen bigger movies at film festivals. For instance, last month, Ready Player One premiered at South by Southwest, which was followed by a Q&A with Steven Spielberg. Solo had a troubled production due to directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller exiting 75% of the way through principal photography and Ron Howard being brought in as their replacement, but the fact that the finished movie will premiere at Cannes acts as a nice conclusion to the long creative process.
Taking place at the height of the Empire's reign across the galaxy, Solo: A Star Wars Story follows the younger Han Solo as he seeks to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld. Along with Alden Ehrenreich as the eponymous protagonist, the main cast includes Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Emilia Clarke as Q'ra, Woody Harrleson as Tobias Beckett, Thandie Newton as Val, Phoebe Waller-Bridge as L3-37 and Paul Bettany as Dryden Vos.
If you're unable to watch Solo: A Star Wars Story at the Cannes Film Festival, you can check it out once it drops in theaters on May 25. As for what other Star Wars movies are in development, you can find that information in our handy guide.
