Here’s the Story Behind an Unused Solo: A Star Wars Story Concept Art in Which Chewie Saves Our Favorite Smuggler

What if young Han Solo died? In a dramatic concept art for Solo: A Star Wars Story, Chewie saves his best friend from a burning hell. Artist Vincent Jenkins recounts the story behind the unused idea.

Imagine a scene in which the hero of our story is lying unconscious on the ground. All hope is lost and you wonder if that’s really our last glimpse of him. Concept artist Vincent Jenkins imagined such a devastating scenario for young Han Solo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story. But don’t worry, there’s another! At the last moment, Chewie rushes in to rescue Han from the raging inferno.

Chewie carrying Han out of the flames – that’s one of the most powerful images in The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Nevertheless, the moment didn't make it into the final film. As with all other projects, countless concepts were designed for Han Solo’s first own screen adventure, but only a fraction of them made the cut. To save this amazing concept from oblivion, I asked Jenkins a few questions about the history of his creation.

I absolutely love this piece. I’m immediately swept away by the dramatic action. Since this scene isn’t part of the movie: What was it about?

Vincent Jenkins: Thanks so much. I think it was an idea from a very early draft of the script. When you're early on a film's production, a concept artist gets to design and illustrate many ideas, scenarios and major key moments that never make it into the final script. This is actually sometimes an interesting experience when you’re a major fan of the franchise you’re working on and you get to see certain stories or plot points that they don’t end up using. Sometimes you get personally attached to certain story ideas you think would be perfect for the film. But this is Star Wars and every fan has their own umbilical cord to what they hold to be important about those stories. This particular concept you have chosen of mine – which actually is one of my favorites too – perfectly fits what I’m talking about. This was an idea early on where as you can see, Chewie is saving Han from a burning structure. Now, personally, I absolutely loved this idea, mainly because to me it showed us one of the reasons in the history of their relationship: Why Han cares so much about this hairy guy. It’s like a dog saving you from a house fire or something. That would fit perfectly to Han’s loner character.

When and where does this moment take place? What had happened to Han before and why is everything on fire?

The moment took place near the end of the movie at the distillery on Savareen. The fire was caused by a conflict with Vos or Beckett over the coaxium, Han I remember gets hit by a fallen beam and so Chewie goes in to get him and save his life. Which then communicates the strong forever bond they have.

Do you know why this moment didn’t make it into the final version of Solo: A Star Wars Story?

Personally, I never ask or try to find out why certain things don’t happen. Making movies is not easy at all. I understand enough to accept that I’ll work hard on things I believe to be an absolute perfect idea, and yet it slips away to make way for a more important element that has to happen. It’s a funny experience being in the art department, because sometimes it works the other way around too. Where I will have a loose painting of an idea that I was about to throw away because I didn’t feel it was good enough and they see it and it ends up in the movie. 

Before Solo you had worked on Rogue One where there were mostly new characters. What was it like drawing younger versions of two of the most iconic Star Wars characters?

You just can’t believe it. You’re in this room full of great talented people and you’re all there to do this job that some people would kill for! I was very blessed to be in those particular films because I'm mainly a fan of the first three films and I was now going to help add history to these characters. I got to work for production designer Neil Lamont which was a dream. By his side was Doug Chiang which was the only time I was ever star struck because I had trained by myself all through my college years from reading his books and now I’m working for him. Meeting writer Jonathan Kasdan was a highlight because he said the design ideas and paintings us concept guys were doing were actually given them ideas to then change things in the scripts. Again, as a fan it’s wild because you end up being one of the few people who got to know the many potential paths Han and Chewie nearly took on in this movie.

When you started working on Solo – what were you most excited about?

I was excited about everything! Mostly that it was another film set before the originals and that I got to work with all my friends from Rogue One. The excitement really hit me when Neil Lamont gave me my first task, to come up designs for how Lando’s Millennium Falcon will look in this movie, I never imagined that was going to happen. 

Han’s clothes resemble his look from the original trilogy. Was there a plan to introduce his west and trousers or was it just like a default setting in the concept art process?

No, at that stage we were all just presenting ideas we thought could work. I remember many months later after we were doing hundreds of designs and paintings, suddenly without warning Alden Ehrenreich just walks in the art department in full costume to see some concepts of the speeder chase, just a strange wacky job sometimes.

I’m quite fascinated by Chewie’s face. He looks concerned and sad but also grumpy. What’s the trickiest part of drawing a Wookiee?

I guess it’s the portions of his body, not too tall, not bulky, not too thin. The way the hair falls over his fingers. In this concept I remember painting his face accurately but couldn’t get the expression I wanted to communicate his feelings, because the Chewie we love under the restrictions of the face mask doesn’t have many expressions, and when you try and push it to have a new expression it looks weird and wrong. So for this I remember thinking of how comic book artist Ashley Wood would draw him to take it away from a literal photo feel of Chewie, so I finished it like that.  

Can you talk about the techniques you used to bring this piece to life?

I normally approach paintings by doing tiny sketches on paper, these are called “thumbnails” to see which composition jumps out at me. Then on digital I block out quickly the rough in the overall shapes of tone and color. And then I start tidying up as I go. Being on Rogue One and Solo really boosted my art skills because I was surrounded by some of the best artists in the world. You're in the middle thinking oh dear I better get up my game quickly or I’m going to get left behind. So this piece is a result of my art style changing into a much faster loose style of work. 

Tell me something about the strong colors you chose. What were your thoughts behind the brown-orange look?

Well when you understand lighting, you can immediately imagine how any lighting setup would come across in camera and you compress that all into a simple color palette in your mind. So you block out the simple rough version of that. In this case the power of a strong hot light source would obviously be warm. Then I would look at references of similar scenarios for accuracy. 

This piece is marked as “Fire Rescue Version 25” in The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story. I’m curious: How many different versions of such a moment do you usually draw? And do you remember how the other versions of this piece differ from this one?

My mind's blank on that one. I don't ever actually remember painting any others, but I must have done. We do so many paintings on these types of films, sometimes three a day. It gets a bit of a mad blur.

When you watch the film today, do you think about how that scene would have ended and felt?

You never know. It comes to how the director treats that moment, it may come across as great or extremely cheesy. In my imagination it's an amazing moment obviously, it’s the difference between film and books. People love books better because you’re the director and editor of your own movie, some directors come along and prove to be a better storyteller then you will ever be and that when the magic happens. I loved the Star Wars movies I worked on. Rogue One has proved to be a classic and Solo has a massive following. I share the hope of fans that Alden comes back for a Solo TV series.

You can follow Vincent’s work on ArtStation, Instagram and Twitter.

Image credit: Lucasfilm