Solo: A Star Wars Story is widely considered to be the least-great Star Wars movie (it’s still a Star Wars movie, so it’s not that bad). Donald Glover is a fun Lando Calrissian; the White Worms are a cool weird alien design; and the train heist is a genuinely thrilling set piece. Of course, the sequence would be a lot more fun if Val, played by Thandiwe Newton, didn’t die at the end for no reason. This was not the original plan, however.
“I felt disappointed by Star Wars that my character was killed. And, actually, in the script, she wasn’t killed. It happened during filming,” the Westworld actress told Inverse. “And it was much more just to do with the time we had to do the scenes. It’s much easier just to have me die than it is to have me fall into a vacuum of space so I can come back sometime.” The scene in the script had her falling “and you don’t know where she’s gone. So I could have come back at some point.” But that proved to be too complicated and expensive, “so they just had me blow up and I’m done.” Newton continued:
“But I remembered at the time thinking, ‘This is a big, big mistake’ — not because of me, not because I wanted to come back. You don’t kill off the first Black woman to ever have a real role in a Star Wars movie. Like, are you f*cking joking?”
The only women of color with lead roles in the 11 Star Wars movies are Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico (who was sidelined for much of The Rise of Skywalker), Newton as Val (who died), and Naomi Ackie as Jannah (who had little to do in Rise). Newton’s right: that is a big, big mistake, one that needs to be rectified in future Star Wars projects.
(Via Inverse)
