[3] In the original trilogy, Solo and his Wookiee friend Chewbacca are smugglers who are hired to transport Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to Alderaan so they can deliver stolen plans for the Death Star.

Solo eventually joins the Rebel Alliance in its struggle against the Galactic Empire, and falls in love with Princess Leia.

In the sequel trilogy, Solo joins forces with Leia, the scavenger Rey and the former stormtrooper Finn in a campaign against the First Order, led by his son, Kylo Ren, who eventually kills him.

In the earliest version of the screenplay, Solo was an alien of the Ureallian race with green skin, enormous gills and no nose.

[7] While developing the story for the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas described Solo as "coming to grips with accepting responsibility."

[9] In early screenplay drafts of Revenge of the Sith (2005), a ten-year-old Solo helps the Jedi Master Yoda locate General Grievous.

[10] Some concept art of the young Solo was created, but Lucas ultimately decided to remove the character from the film.

In an early draft, Solo reconciled with Leia and survived the film, but Abrams felt his character was not contributing to the plot in a meaningful way.

He realized that Solo's death at the hands of his son would move the story forward, while also giving Kylo Ren the chance to develop into a worthy successor to Darth Vader.

[v] Mark Hamill, who plays Solo's companion Luke Skywalker, admired Ford's ability to re-write his character's dialogue.

In Star Wars (1977), Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca accept a charter to transport Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi from Tatooine to Alderaan on their ship, the Millennium Falcon.

The Falcon is captured and brought aboard the Death Star, but Solo and his companions avoid detection and infiltrate the station.

Vader freezes Solo in carbonite and gives him to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who plans to deliver him to Jabba.

Returning to the Rebel fleet, the companions discover that the Empire is building a second Death Star, which is orbiting the forest moon of Endor.

Solo, now a general in the Rebel Alliance, leads a strike team to disable the shield surrounding the battle station.

After enlisting a tribe of Ewoks in a battle against Imperial forces, the Rebels remove the shield, which allows Lando and his team to destroy the Death Star.

When Solo learns that Rey is looking for Luke, who disappeared years before, he takes them to his friend Maz Kanata, hoping she can deliver the droid BB-8 to the Resistance.

Solo, Chewbacca and Finn land on the First Order's planet-converted superweapon, Starkiller Base, intending to disable its shield and rescue Rey.

The 2018 standalone film Solo: A Star Wars Story depicts a 19-year-old Han living as an orphan on the planet Corellia.

He wants to join them, but their leader Tobias Beckett gets him arrested for desertion and thrown into a pit to be eaten by a Wookiee named Chewbacca.

Solo and Chewbacca then accompany Beckett to a meeting with his overseer Dryden Vos, the leader of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate.

Solo suggests a plan to steal coaxium from the mines on the planet Kessel; Vos approves, but insists that Qi'ra accompany the crew.

After a series of schemes and betrayals, Vos and his guards lie dead and Beckett has fled with the coaxium and taken Chewbacca as a hostage.

The story features a time jump where Indiana Jones finds the skeleton remains of Solo on the Millennium Falcon.

Issue #6 introduces Sana Starros as his wife, although later it is revealed that she married him as part of a plan to swindle a crime lord.

The 1994 Kevin J. Anderson novel Jedi Search explains how Solo incurred the debt to Jabba that haunts him throughout the films.

The Han Solo Trilogy (1997–1998) by Ann C. Crispin develops the character's backstory, depicting him as a beggar and pickpocket throughout much of his youth.

To recoup their losses, Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot accept a smuggling job from Jabba, but are forced to jettison their cargo.

The trilogy ends with Solo meeting Luke and Obi-Wan in Mos Eisley, as depicted in Star Wars.