Details on Han Solo's Deleted Imperial Training Scene in SOLO and His Alternate First Encounter With Chewbacca

While Solo: A Star Wars Story continues to fight to make more money at the box office, some new details have surfaced that shed some light on some deleted scenes that we didn't see in the film. 

With all of the behind-the-scenes drama of Solo, it's not surprising to learn that a few things ended up on the cutting room floor. But during a recent interview with Indiewire, screenwriters Lawrence and Jon Kasdan revealed that 90% of their script ended up on the big screen.

They revealed one significant scene that didn’t make the final cut, and that includes Han Solo's days as he trained as an Imperial soldier and getting kicked out of the pilot training. Jon said:

"Yeah, so did we! In fact, we hope, and I believe that when you finally get a Blu-ray of this movie, you’ll see a terrific scene with Han in aerial training and then getting kicked out of aerial training. [laughs] And ultimately, with a cameo by me. The reason I decided to do a cameo in that particular scene is we were sure it wouldn’t get cut out, and of course it did. Ultimately, I think you would think, and all people would agree, that the trajectory of the movie is helped by not having it. But it is a moment that we too would have loved to see more of and really believe in."

Jon Kasdan went on to describe the cameo and said it was heartbreaking that they had to cut it.

"And as he’s getting kicked out, he’s being sort of moved out of the official courtroom by Tag and Bink, played by [me] and Toby Hefferman, our [first] AD. And we were certain that these scene was going to remain because it’s a crucial moment in his life. And it was the last thing to come out. It was heartbreaking."

At least we'll eventually get to see it on the home entertainment release of the film! There was also another thing changed from the early drafts of the script that were written. That includes a very different first meeting between Han and Chewbacca.

In a separate interview with ScreenRant, ILM senior art director Aaron McBride revealed that in the original script that the Kasdan's wrote, Han Solo becomes a pilot in a fleet that is fighting against the Empire. It's explained that "Han's cocky demeanor led to his making a critical mistake. In a scene styled after Top Gun, Solo crashed his damaged fighter into a hangar. This early script saw Han brought before a tribunal, who sentenced him to Mimban. There, he fought not as an Imperial soldier but against the Empire." It's there that he meets Chewbacca.

Han and Chewie, who were partnered together, wound up going up against Imperial mech walkers. There, in an unexpected twist, it would be Chewie who rescued Han from Imperial fire, establishing an inverted version of the famous “life debt“.

That would have been an interesting way to go about it, but ultimately, I really liked what they ended up doing with Han and Chewbacca's first meeting in Solo: A Star Wars Story. That was unexpected and a lot of fun. What did you think about how they handled it?