In response to a direct question about whether his character in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars standalone was in fact Garris Shrike, actor Woody Harrelson said, “Yeah, I am.”
This article has been updated.
While Harrelson has already confirmed he’s playing young Han Solo’s “mentor” who is a “bit of criminal,” fan speculation has been focusing on who from previously established Star Wars media would correspond to such a description. While there are a few different candidates for a “mentor” to Han, the Corellian criminal Garris Shrike from A.C. Crispin’s novel The Paradise Snare has been the best bet. In an on-camera interview with Variety on Sunday, Harrelson was directly asked if his character was Garris Shrike. After a long and unsure pause, he responded in the affirmative.
While numerous outlets are reporting this as a full confirmation of the inclusion of Garris Shrike in the as yet-untitled Han Solo film, it’s still unclear what Harrelson meant exactly by “Yeah, I am.” The Shrike character could be used as a template for Harrelson’s character, or it could simply be a misunderstanding of the question. Not that resurrecting another character from “Legends” would be out of the question for Lucasfilm. After the flurry of news reports concerning Harrelson’s quote, Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo cast further doubt of this being a full-on confirmation with a tweet saying “what question was he answering?”
The inclusion of Shrike into the new canon could be viewed as just as likely as a random character from The Clone Wars having a major role in Rogue One. But Saw Gerrera’s elevated importance combined with the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn to the canon means that anything is possible. Even the canonization of a minor character from a Legends novel that is 20 years old.
The “Han Solo” movie will release sometime in 2018. Here’s everything we know about the film so far.
(Top image: Woody Harrelson + Smuggler art from the 1997 Star Wars Roleplaying Game)
