How L3-37 Makes Us Reinterpret a Classic ‘Star Wars’ Moment

It should be no surprise that Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s droid L3-37 is one of the audience favorite characters in Solo: A Star Wars Story. But you might not realize the legacy that L3-37 has left on classic Star Wars…retconned of course.

Spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story coming up…

In Solo: A Star Wars Story, L3-37 is a progressive, self-made droid who has upgraded and improved herself with scraps of other droids. In the film, she dies in action and her consciousness and data are uploaded to the Millenium Falcon in order to help our heroes make a big escape.

It’s a cool moment in the movie, but I walked out of the theater wishing it somehow tied into the Star Wars canon we had seen before. Sure, it’s cool that the Millenium Falcon’s guidance system has been retconned to mean something. We knew there was something special about this ship, and this film gives us a reason why. Still, I left the movie disappointed that it was something added to this canon and never acknowledged in the original trilogy or any of the canon expanded materials (books, video games, comics, etc.).

But then a friend reminded me of a line from The Empire Strikes Back. C-3PO is trying to interpret the Millennium Falcon for Han Solo and says “Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.” It’s funny how the dialogue in the Star Wars movies can still sometimes surprise you.

When I talked with Lawrence Kasdan and Jonathan Kasdan, the screenwriters of Solo: A Star Wars Story, I brought this up and Jonathan explained how this connection came about:

Yes.  That was something that came out of a lot of conversations with Larry, Phil, Chris and I about how to make it, how to retcon a little bit and say, how could she not only be a great character that we wanted, but a part of the story we didn’t realize was there?  And giving the Falcon a personality that is fused with this amazing character played by Phoebe I think does actually enrich the other movies in a way that I’m excited about.

It’s a cool detail that makes me appreciate the droid’s role in this prequel story even more.

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