Apart from the news that Woody Harrelson was cast as a mentor to Alden Ehrenreich’s Han in the Han Solo movie, we haven’t heard a great deal about just who Harrelson will be playing – until now.
In a sitdown interview with Variety, Harrelson was asked about his role in the movie, eventually confirming, after some prompting, that he’ll be playing Garris Shrike.
If that name doesn’t leap out at you then you clearly haven’t been reading enough mid-90s unofficial Star Wars novels (you and me both).
Appearing in the 1997 book The Paradise Snare, Shrike was introduced as the man who helped raise Han Solo (alongside a female Wookiee, natch) and taught him all there is to know about hoodwinking and criminal hijinks.
The end of that novel wanders into possible spoiler territory for the upcoming movie so let’s just say Han Solo and Garris Shrike had a bit of a falling out. Plus, Disney cut ties with a whole host of non-canon material so who’s to say how faithful the Han Solo movie’s version of Shrike will be to its book cousin?
Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson and Emilia Clarke, the as-yet-untitled Young Han Solo spin off is scheduled to be released May 25, 2018
