Will Qi’ra betray Han in Solo: A Star Wars Story?

Not much has been said about Qi’ra, Emilia Clarke’s character in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Is that priming us to see her betray Han in the film?

For all that Qi’ra reminds us of other female Star Wars protagonists, not much has really been said about her beyond that she’s part of the criminal underworld and has a history with Han. At this point, that seems to be very intentional, especially considering how Emilia Clarke has repeatedly said that she can’t say much about who Qi’ra is.

Of course, that naturally engenders the question of why we can’t learn much about Qi’ra.

The obvious — and probably accurate — answer is that Qi’ra ends up betraying Han at some point. This may occur either for her own benefit or for his own good, cutting ties with him so that he’s all ready to fall in love with a princess a few years down the line after he meets a farm boy and a Jedi in a cantina on Tatooine.

While Clarke hasn’t been able to say as much, the things she has shared seem to be leading us towards this conclusion. Speaking to Vanity Fair, linked above, she points out that she kept getting “film noir” as a note. While there are a few female archetypes in the genre, Qi’ra seems to be directly modeled on the femme fatale — the woman who betrays our hero, even after letting him think that they could be something more. Reviews of Solo have even picked up on the romantic angle between Han and Qi’ra. Even if they didn’t, it’s been pretty obvious that that would be part of her character arc.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make her seem like a more interesting character. Han’s close friends betraying him is an angle we’ve seen before. In fact, Han’s trip to a carbonite freezer in The Empire Strikes Back basically hinges on it.

A past betrayal would explain some of Han’s relationship with Leia, where he acts cool and aloof but then absolutely has feelings. But we don’t know if Qi’ra burning him as a youth really needs to happen for that to make Han a cohesive character.

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Hopefully, Qi’ra manages to surprise us. She and the women of Star Wars deserve better than to be predictable.