Disney treated attendees at Las Vegas movies convention CinemaCon to footage from its hotly-anticipated “Solo: A Star Wars Story” on Tuesday as it whetted appetites for its upcoming slate of blockbusters.
While the world’s largest movie studio traditionally keeps back its juiciest surprises for its own biennial D23 Expo, it delighted delegates with footage of the first meeting between Alden Ehrenreich’s young Han Solo and Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian.
Footage from the Ron Howard movie — the second “Star Wars” spinoff after “Rogue One” (2016) — showed the pair’s encounter in a sleazy dive bar on a snowbound world, watched by a colorful menagerie of new alien characters.
Emilia Clarke — Daenerys Targaryen in “Game of Thrones” — appeared in the preview for the May 25 release, goading Han into taking on Lando in a card game.
“You might want to quit while you’re ahead,” Lando warns Han as the pair gamble with their starships.
The footage didn’t reveal the name of Lando’s vessel but fans will be aware that he lost the iconic “Millennium Falcon” to Han in a card game, according to “Star Wars” franchise lore.
Journalists noted outside of the presentation that the vignette evoked the Mos Eisley cantina scene from the 1977 original “Star Wars,” where Harrison Ford’s Solo first meets Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.
