Mark Hamill Let It Slip That A ‘Star Wars’ Icon Will Be In ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’

Unless my dude Nien Nunb has been hanging out in the background of scenes, unnoticed and undisturbed, for the last 41 years, there’s only one actor who’s been in every Star Wars film: Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. (R2-D2 has also appeared in all the movies, but Jimmy Vee took over for the late Kenny Baker beginning with The Last Jedi.) The hyper-fluent protocol droid speaks the first line in the first film (“Did you hear that”), and he hasn’t shut up since. Threepio was in the prequels, Threepio is in the new trilogy (albeit in a diminished capacity), he popped up in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and according to Mark Hamill, he won’t tell Han Solo the odds in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

During a recent episode of the Cape Up podcast, host Jonathan Capehart asked Hamill, “What does C-3PO have to do to earn his freedom Is he just stuck working for the Skywalker family forever” The actor responded, “[Anthony] Daniels was so happy, ‘cause he’s in every single Star Wars movie. Every single one. All the prequels, he’s in Rogue One, he’s in Solo… Whoops! I hope that’s not, erm… But anyway, he’s in Every. Single. Star Wars movie. That’s not such a reveal – all Star Wars fans expect him to be in every movie.”

The easiest way for C-3PO and R2-D2, who didn’t meet Han Solo until the events of the original Star Wars, to be in Solo without contradicting canon (Threepio-as-god forbid) is a trip to Kessel. The planet is only mentioned twice in the movies: by Han, when he’s bragging about the Millennium Falcon making the smuggler-friendly route Kessel Run in “less than 12 parsecs,” and by C-3PO, when he’s worried about being “sent to the spice mines of Kessel, smashed into who-knows-what.” If C-3PO is aware of Kessel, perhaps he’s been there before And since Solo will reportedly show the infamous Run…

If anyone can find a way to make it work, it’s Solo co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, who came up with Han’s irritated “goldenrod” burn in The Empire Strikes Back. That’s why Han deserved a spinoff: he’s the only character who understands just how annoying C-3PO is. Solo: A Star Wars Story comes out on May 25.