Han Solo to get his own Star Wars spinoff, Disney announces

Laugh it up, fuzzball!HanSolois getting his own movie in the Star Wars anthology series, one of four standalone films revealed byDisney earlier this year.

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The Solo spinoff, announced by the studio Wednesday,will be directed by LEGOMovieduoChristopher Miller and Phil Lord, who have pledged to honour the story ofMillenniumFalcon pilot appropriately.

"We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience," said the filmmakers in a joint statement, "andwe pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us."

Audiences will be able to judge their fidelity when the film is released on May 25, 2018.

Telling the scoundrel's story

The story, co-written byRaiders of the Lost ArkscribeLawrence Kasdan and his son,JonKasdan, centres on how young Solo "became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley," explains the studio.

It's not clear which hot young actor will be cast as the swaggering swashbuckler, who was first played by Harrison Ford in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, but fans are already dreaming.

Here are some names being bandied about online:

• TaronEgerton,who played the cocky recruit inKingsman: The Secret Service.
• Whiplash'spercussiveprotgMiles Teller.
• Fault in Our Stars heartthrob Ansel Elgort.
• JoshHutcherson, who starred asDistrict 12 tributePeeta Mallarkin theHunger Games series.
• Velociraptor whispererand Guardians of the GalaxysuperheroChris Pratt.

Series of spinoffs

Set on in the same universe as the original Star Wars saga, the four films in theanthology will expand on stories and characters tied to the core narrative.

The first, titledRogue One,was announced earlier this year.

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The Theory of Everything's Felicity Jones is set to star in the movie, which is set chronologically between the third and the fourth films in theStar Warssaga.

It follows a band of resistance fighters who unite to steal the Death Star.

RogueOneis set for aDec. 16, 2016, release.