Solo: A Star Wars Story needs to answer how Han understands Shyriiwook already

Although there used to be a canon reason for Han Solo understanding Shyriiwook prior to meeting Chewbacca, Solo: A Star Wars Story now has to figure that out too.

Solo: A Star Wars Story effectively has to explain pretty much everything about how an actor who looks and sounds like Alden Ehrenreich — who definitely seems a bit more earnest in the footage we’ve seen of the film — turns into Harrison Ford’s iconic performance in A New Hope. It’s a tough ask already. They seem so far apart.

But of course, what’s Han Solo without Chewbacca? There was no way the most famous Wookiee of them all wasn’t going to appear in the movie… and it looks like Han can already understand him, as he does in later films.

Check out the latest TV spot below:

Way back in the pre-Disney sale days, there was an actually established reason for why Han could understand Chewie: he grew up on a ship that had a Wookiee cook, who taught him how to understand Shyriiwook. (It’s from the Han Solo Trilogy, which you should definitely read even though the books are no longer canon.) Ostensibly, others picked up enough to be able to understand Chewie as well throughout the trilogy.

There’s no way that everything from those three books will become canon again. However, the fact that Han can understand Chewbacca already seems to suggest that this detail — that Han grew up around or otherwise knows other Wookiees — might make its way back into canon. We’re not expecting a full-blown dump of information from Han about it at any point. However, we’ve already guessed that we might see a baby Han during the film.

Next: C2E2's best cosplay from Star Wars to Stranger Things

At least this Solo TV spot captures how Chewie has a certain pessimism about him and generally thinks certain things are particularly unwise. That’s a positive sign.

Solo: A Star Wars Story arrives May 25.