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Rian Johnson Explains Why Han Solo’s Funeral Wasn’t in ‘The Last Jedi’

There is no doubt that many of us, if not all, left our Star Wars: The Last Jedi experience with many questions. Was Kylo Ren lying about Rey’s parents? Who are Leia’s allies? What will Luke’s role be going forward? Those are just a few of the lingering questions we have, questions we won’t get answers to for a while. Luckily, thanks to director Rian Johnson, one of those many questions now has an answer.

The final act of J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens was blown wide open when Kylo Ren, formerly Ben Solo, killed his father on a guard-less walkway on Starkiller Base. From that moment, because it’s Han freaking Solo, we thought it was only right to get the chance to see his funeral, to celebrate the character on Solo inside the galaxy of Star Wars. But unexpectedly, that wasn’t shown in The Last Jedi, and while that may have angered some fans, director Rian Johnson has a strong reason as to why it wasn’t included:

[There was no debate of showing Han Solo’s funeral], just because pacing-wise it didn’t have a place. It’s tough in Star Wars because I always think about the mourning that Luke gives to Ben’s death, which is all of four-and-a-half seconds before, ‘Come on kid we’re not out of this yet’ and then boom, you’re into ‘Yay, woo-hoo! Don’t get cocky!’ There’s the moment for it, but it’s not long. We don’t have time for our sorrows, commanders. That’s kind of the thing of Star Wars; you don’t really linger on grief because you’re moving forward.

His reason is valid, but at the same time, Han Solo is a different character from Alec Guiness’ Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan will go down as one of the greatest characters ever, no doubt, but as a character who has been featured in four movies from 1977 to 2015, it is a bit disappointing that there wasn’t time spared to mourn the loss of him. Luckily, the upcoming novelization of The Last Jedi will deal with Han’s funeral, as well as a number of others things.

What do you think? Should The Last Jedi have included a scene for Solo or do you think the film was just too fast paced to take time for it? Will you be reading the novelization for that moment? Sound off in the comments!

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