How to say Qi’ra’s name and other Solo: A Star Wars Story tidbits from Ron Howard

Chewbacca has his own leitmotif! Oh, and Ron Howard revealed some other things about Solo: A Star Wars Story, too, but we’re excited about Chewie and Qi’ra.

Ron Howard has somehow ended up as the most open person when it comes to Solo: A Star Wars Story. Everyone else talks as though Lucasfilm has Boba Fett and a carbonite machine just around the corner, but Howard, meanwhile, secured permission to do a full-blown question-and-answer session on Twitter … and even had Chewbacca make appearances.

Granted, he didn’t reveal much, because we don’t think Lucasfilm would tolerate him spoiling the movie, but he did get to tell us plenty of tidbits.

Here are the five best.

Chewbacca gets his own leitmotif

For a character that spans trilogies, has his own Forces of Destiny episode and is just as instantly recognizable as Darth Vader, Chewbacca surprisingly doesn’t have a theme that we think of right away — not like “Han Solo and the Princess” or “The Force Theme.”

Well, that’s apparently changed. Per Howard, John Powell put together a theme song for Chewie. Not only does that suggest that Solo will have a musical feel similar to the main saga films, with heavy use of leitmotif, but John Williams also contributed some music to the film (though we did know that already).

Honestly, that’s a little reassuring. The new version of the Star Wars fanfare that we’ve heard in trailers hasn’t really inspired just yet.

Watch crime and heist movies if you want to get a feel of Solo

Just like the tie-in collections, Howard said he went back to the ’70s for some inspiration, name-checking Bullitt from 1968 (starring Steve McQueen, who has a very Han Solo aesthetic). Basically, if you want to really prepare yourself for this movie and want to watch more than just Star Wars — get your bearings in ’70s crime movies.

How to pronounce Qi’ra’s name (and also some adjectives)

If you have stumbled over how to pronounce about Emilia Clarke’s character, stumble no longer. Howard says kira, and so kira it will be. Anyway, his six words for her are as follows: “strong, intelligent, ambitious, complicated, beautiful … [and] dangerous.” Okay, the question was only five words, but let’s face it, dangerous is second only to ambitious in terms of intrigue for Qi’ra.

You’ll need to make your own Ron Howard narration memes

Although we’re sure that Ron Howard-themed jokes about Solo will become seriously common as soon as people actually see it, unfortunately, the movie itself will not be so meta as to put in a voiceover from its director.

That probably doesn’t seem like a surprise, but hey, maybe we can get a version of Solo that has the narrations put in for the home video release, like the score-only version of The Last Jedi.

Next: Yes, the marketing for Solo went there

Solo hits theaters later this month, on May 25.