Two major Han Solo movie characters revealed - but who will be playing them?

It’s always fun to learn names of new Star Wars characters and get used to the idea of them making it into the canon alongside names that are permanently burned into our memories. Now we have two more to add to the list for the upcoming Han Solo movie, but be warned: if you don’t want to know anything, turn back now because these might be considered spoilers.

According to MakingStarWars, one of the film’s new characters will be called Mother Proxima. Described as “likely some sort of puppet,” the character is being operated by Dave Chapman, whom hardcore fans might recognize as one of the two guys who operated the lovable BB-8 droid in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The site claims that Mother Proxima is being voiced by one of the actors we already know is a part of the cast. Could that be Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and star of UK TV shows Fleabag and Crashing? Most recently, she was rumored to be playing a female droid, but initial reports claimed she’d be giving a “CGI-driven performance,” so maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle for the mysterious Mother Proxima?

And secondly, MSW reports that there’s a female character in the film named Val, who has “top billing” and therefore suggests it might be Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke’s character. The report also claims that Val will be involved with at least one sequence involving stunts, which in my mind lends a bit of credence to Clarke playing her. But that name, though... I hope it’s short for Valdeeziry Souptopterex or something cool like that, because Val sounds an awful lot like a boring old Earthling’s name. No offense to any real Vals out there, but you know… this is Star Wars we’re talking about.

Neither of these new names hold a candle to the absolute best Star Wars character name of all time: Rogue One's Baze Malbus. Don’t bother resisting. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and starring Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Emilia Clarke, the as-yet-untitled Han Solo movie is scheduled to be released on May 25, 2018. We're certainly more excited about it than Harrison Ford.

Image: Lucasfilm

Ben is an entertainment journalist who has written about movies online for nearly a decade. He loves the Fast & Furious franchise, prefers Indiana Jones to Star Wars, and will defend the ending of Lost until his dying day. He shook Bill Murray's hand once (so he's got that going for him, which is nice). Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife.