Star Wars ‘Red Cup’: Young Han Solo movie director posts first photo from set

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The lid might only just be on the can of Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi, but anticipation is already ramping up for the Star Wars film that will follow it, a standalone prequel revolving around Han Solo.

Going under the working title Red Cup (probably so named because classic red cups are also called solo cups, hence Han Solo) it began principal photography today, with co-director Chris Miller posting a shot of its first slate being held up to camera.

“Han First Shot,” he wrote, a play on the infamous “who shot first?” scene in the original trilogy involving Han.

Hail, Caesar!'s Alden Ehrenreich will play Han Solo in the spin-off, while Atlanta's Donald Glover will take on Lando Calrissian, with Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke and The Hunger Games’ Woody Harrelson having recently joined the cast.

“This moves closer to a heist or western type feel,” Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy previously said of the film.

Specifically, “We’ve talked about (Frederic) Remington and those primary colors that are used in his paintings defining the look and feel of the film.”

Star Wars films have always gone under code names, with The Last Jedi being referred to as “Space Bears” during production.

The as-yet-officially-untitled film has a scheduled release date of 25 May, 2018.