Han Solo Movie Set Leaks Look More 'Mad Max' Than 'Star Wars'

The directors and cast for the upcoming Han Solo 'Star Wars Story.'
The directors and cast for the upcoming Han Solo 'Star Wars Story.' Lucasfilm

Photos and video leaked from the set of the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars Story are so loaded with new speeders and ground vehicles that it has us wondering if podracing — or its dirtier, street-level equivalent — will return in the 2018 Star Wars movie.

The photos were taken while the Han Solo movie shot at the decommissioned Fawley Power Station in southern England. With it’s UFO-shaped control room and rundown industrial look, Fawley has been a common location for sci-fi movie exteriors, including appearances in Rollerball, Red Dwarf and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. Now it’s an exterior for some variety of Han Solo “podcar” race:

But that’s not all. Dozens of other photos show all sorts of kooky vehicles. The U.K.’s Daily Echo probably has the most comprehensive gallery, but Making Star Wars offers a little better context. Some of the highlights include big-engined monstrosities, tiny go-kart vehicles, sleek speeders similar to Luke’s X-34 landspeeder and a spindly craft with a blaster turret on top.

There are also several indications that something illegal is afoot in this scene. Not only is there a building that looks like an Imperial checkpoint, but there might even be a stormtrooper motorcycle gang in pursuit. While reports place Han Solo actor Alden Ehrenreich at the scene, it’s hard to find cast members in the leaked photos, particularly since many of the actors are hidden under huge, black robes.

These new leaks are our best look yet at the variety of dusty, rough-and-tumble vehicles clogging the Star Wars streets (we don’t know if any of the Han Solo movie is set on Tatooine, but it sure looks like it’s set on Tatooine).

The new set leaks aren’t our first indication that the Han Solo movie will have a planet-based, Mad Max ground vehicle vibe. There’s even one vehicle that has us wondering whether young Han Solo will be the Star Wars galaxy’s version of a greaser, tinkering with his motorcycle in between street races.

READ: Is The Han Solo Movie's Millennium Falcon A Motorcycle?

What we’ve seen of the Han Solo movie looks a lot like Mos Eisley, fulfilling the promise of a Star Wars spaghetti western. Since the Han Solo covers six years of the smuggler’s life, no one location is likely to capture the full narrative scope. But, based on these set leaks, it sure looks like a chunk of Han Solo’s life is far more ground-bound than space-based. So far this is shaping up to be the most planet-based of any Star Wars movie.

Whether Han Solo is engaged in a street race or a car chase, we can at least say that his life is looking considerably more Mad Max influenced than Luke Skywalker and his bucolic, moisture farm childhood.

In addition to Solo himself, the Star Wars Story following Rogue One will also feature Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), Han’s mentor Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and new characters played by Thandie Newton, Emilia Clarke, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michael K. Williams.

The Han Solo Star Wars Story will be out in theaters May 25, 2018.

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