‘Solo: A Star Wars Movie’ to get world premiere at Cannes Film Festival

The latest “Star Wars” movie spinoff, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” will get its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, organizers announced on Friday.

A glitzy red-carpet premiere in the French coastal city is scheduled for May 15, ten days before the film opens in theaters around the world, they said in a statement.

“Solo” takes audiences back to the youth of the smuggler, ace pilot and charming scoundrel, Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford in the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie.

His younger self is played by relative newcomer, American actor Alden Ehrenreich.

The Cannes Film Festival is best known for screening art-house films from around the world, but the inclusion of “Solo” is not without precedent. “Attack of the Clones” was screened there in 2002, as was “Revenge of the Sith” in 2005.

The “Solo” spin-off is part of Walt Disney Co’s expanding slate of “Star Wars” movies, which was rebooted by the 2015 blockbuster hit, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

The movie has been beset with difficulties. Original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, best known for “The Lego Movie,” were fired in June 2017 because of what were described as creative differences, and veteran Hollywood filmmaker Ron Howard took over.