There was a River Phoenix Easter egg in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' that we all missed

Sam Ashurst
·Contributor

Star Wars fans got special treat Friday as Solo screenwriter Jon Kasdan blasted out 52 fun facts about the film onto Twitter.

The movie, which is now out digitally and arrives on Blu-ray and DVD later this month, doesn’t have an audio commentary, which makes Kasdan’s message all that sweeter. There’s plenty to unpack, but perhaps the best reveal is related to River Phoenix.

“Han pulling the eel out of his pants was a nod to River Phoenix who worked with Lawrence Kasdan on I Love You to Death and was the first attempt at the daunting task of of playing a younger version of an iconic Harrison Ford character,” Kasdan said.

That’s the kind of Easter egg that is virtually impossible to catch while watching, so it’s nice to have it confirmed — and fans of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade will especially be stoked to learn about it.

Watch: River Phoenix as young Indian Jones in The Last Crusade:

Kasdan also revealed that Solo, like The Dark Knight, owes its inspiration to Michael Mann’s heist classic Heat. “We wanted Beckett to be cut from the same cloth as Neil McCauley. We wanted Beckett to embody a kind of moral cynicism that Han would, later in his life, outwardly project, but never really possess.”

And we like that a confirmation of a fairly obvious Return of the Jedi reference was thrown in there too. “OF COURSE Han told Leia the story of how he an Qi’ra broke out of the den of the white worms and that’s what gave Leia the idea to use a real thermal detonator when disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi.”

Check out all the other entries below, there’s plenty of fun stuff to be found in there.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is available on digital HD and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray Sept. 24.

Watch: Chewbacca answers your burning Star Wars questions:


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