Is Han Solo Stupid? An Investigation

A big reason I started The Hard Pass six months ago this week was so I could write about Star Wars anytime I had an idea about Star Wars. My favorite pieces to write about Star Wars aren't dissections of the franchise, or where things went wrong, or the state of things today. My favorite Star Wars topics to write about are more in universe questions using only the information that was available when that movie came out. Does the force even exist in the original 1977 Star Wars? Probably, but I do think it's debatable. Or the idea I had today, is Han Solo stupid?

I do want to give a big six month anniversary thank you to everyone who reads this newsletter. The response has been so much more fulfilling than anything I imagined. And, as Han Solo said, "I can imagine a lot." (Okay, Han Solo did say that but, truthfully, I was not imagining much at all.)

Now, a couple of you might be thinking, "Didn't you write that already?" I, too, had that same thought. Most everything I wrote at Uproxx has been removed from the internet, So I had to do some real digging. It turns out, yes, I have written this before, back in 2018. So I'm presenting it here again, with some added commentary because some of the assumptions I made about the future of Star Wars are retroactively funny.

Also, speaking of Han Solo (or, more specifically, Harrison Ford) I haven't mentioned it much here at the newsletter, but my former editor at Uproxx, Keith Phipps (you probably know him better from other places), and myself started a new Harrison Ford themed podcast called Ford Focus: A Harrison Ford Podcast. (You can find our Patreon page here and the podcast episodes can be found wherever it is you get your podcasts. Here's the link to Spotify.) I am excited to announce that I can take full credit for that title. We are four episodes into this project of discussing Harrison Ford's full body of work – and on top of that we have three Harrison Ford-adjacent bonus episodes (well, the third will be out this week) for patreon subscribers. We call these Ford Escape, and I am also proud that I can take full credit for that title, too. Anyway! If you like Harrison Ford, hopefully you will like this podcast.

But let's get to the burning question at hand, is Han Solo stupid? (I suspect Harrison Ford would say "yes.") And here's how this investigation originally published back in 2018, with some new notes:

Is Han Solo Stupid?

It’s been roughly three months since the dust has settled on Han Solo’s standalone movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story. And now the Lucasfilm train is rolling forward with the start of production of the untitled Episode IX – which will see pretty much every classic character returning other than Han Solo.¹ Though, it would be funny, after Han died basically three times in The Force Awakens, if he showed up again with no explanation: “Hey, how can I help?’ “Great to have you back, Han.”

¹Hello from 2026. First, well, who knew? Second, I forgot there really was a time I was looking forward to what would become The Rise of Skywalker. I guess that's why I flew across the country to go to the premiere. Anyway, live and learn.

But the one quote I haven’t stopped thinking about since that film came out was a quote from Lawrence Kasdan that he’s been saying about Han Solo since at least 2015, "He's cynical. He's tough. He's pragmatic. He's not that smart." These quotes resurfaced when Phil Lord and Chris Miller left Solo, with the point being made that Han Solo is not “funny,” but instead cynical and dumb.

Of the films in the Original Trilogy, Kasdan was only involved in Return of the Jedi from start to finish. He wasn’t involved with Star Wars at all and came on late to The Empire Strikes Back. (With Empire, Leigh Brackett wrote the first draft and it’s a fascinating thing to read and looks very little like what that movie turned out to be. Lucas then rewrote Empire himself, declining a writer’s credit. Kasdan then came on to rewrite the dialogue.²)

²2026 me again ... I ran across an interesting interview with Kasdan in an old Starlog magazine shortly after the release of Empire. He uses a large portion of it defending himself from the criticisms towards Empire, talking about how his final script was changed during filming. What makes this interesting is the notion that Empire was kind of disliked when it came out, which is something a lot of people today don't really realize. He also didn't like Ford's performance in the film (I could not disagree more with this), but wants people to know he's really great in the upcoming Raiders.

But, here’s the question: Is Han Solo actually stupid?

Let’s go through all of Han Solo’s major moments in the Original Trilogy where he has to make some key decisions and we can decide.

(This is a free post for "free tier" subscribers. But, The Hard Pass truly only exists because of paying subscribers. If you are not a paying subscriber and enjoy reading this post, please do consider becoming one, then you can read the story I was told about Tom Cruise that is now my favorite Tom Cruise story, risking humiliation by approaching Philip Seymour Hoffman to ask him about Along Came Polly, and the time Larry King called me “a freak“ and asked if I was “a nerd.”