Warning: minor SPOILERS for Solo: A Star Wars Story are ahead!
There's been one constant in all of the Star Wars movies: Anthony Daniels' presence. Until now, Daniels has appeared in all the theatrical tales set in a galaxy far, far away as C-3PO, but we recently learned that for Solo: A Star Wars Story, he won't be reprising the fussy, golden protocol droid. Instead, Daniels will play a brand-new character, and it was originally believed that this was one of Chewbacca's Wookiee allies. However, apparently there was a miscommunication, and Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan has clarified that rather than getting his Wookiee on, Daniels is actually playing a human character who has screen time with Chewbacca and this other Wookiee. Kasdan explained:
When I was talking about Anthony's cameo, it was a mistake of my syntax, I think. In the escape from the Kessel Mines, Anthony does not play the Wookiee, Sagwa, gobut rather his best friend, a human slave who beckons Sagwa, not Chewie, to join his escape route. Sagwa in turn invites Chewie to join Tak and himself. I'm sorry that was confusing...
So there you have it. Anthony Daniels is appearing in Solo: A Star Wars Story not as C-3PO or Sagwa the Wookiee, but a human named Tak who is enslaved alongside the Wookiees in the Kessell mines. While it sounds at first like this scene between Chewbacca, Sagwa and Tak might take place before Chewie has met Han, Kasdan also passed along a script excerpt that reveals that L3-37 is in the scene, suggesting that whatever is going on here happens after Chewie has established a rapport with the eponymous protagonist. In any case, this actually won't be the first time that Daniels has played a character other than C-3PO in a Star Wars movie, as he also briefly popped up in 2002's Attack of the Clones as Dannl Faytoni, a patron at the club on Coruscant where Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi cornered assassin Zam Wesell.
In addition to updating Uproxx on Anthony Daniels' character situation in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jonathan Kasdan also revealed why he and his fellow writer/father Lawrence Kasdan decided to name him Tak, saying:
He was named Tak in homage to legendary DP Tak Fujimoto. And that's an exclusive, my friend. I'm not even sure Anthony knows his character's name.
Besides being the cinematographer on popular movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Silence of the Lambs and The Sixth Sense, Tak Fujimoto also worked on the second unit photography team for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, so it's cool that his name now gets to be a part of Star Wars lore. Solo: A Star Wars Story is notable for being the first Star Wars movie not to include C-3PO (or his trusty companion R2-D2), but it's still great that the prequel adventure found a way to include him, even if there was initially a mixup regarding who he's playing.
Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released in theaters on May 25. You can read CinemaBlend's review of the movie now, and if you're interested in what else is hitting the silver screen later this year, check out our 2018 premiere guide.
