10 Biggest WTF Moments From This Year's Summer Films

With Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ron Howard and the Kasdans delivered a classic western film that just so happened to be set in a galaxy far, far away. It was like Lawrence Kasdan's Silverado, but with Chewbacca in a supporting role.

And so as the film reached its end, it seemed to have checked all the boxes one would expect from a western film and/or a Han Solo prequel. just when it looked like things were starting to wrap up though, the film dropped an unexpected bombshell on viewers.

The true leader of Crimson Dawn was none other than (formerly Darth) Maul. To audiences unfamiliar with extraneous Star Wars material, such as the novels, comics, or television programs, this came as a huge shock. But even more so, the WTF-ness of this moment comes from the fact that it's Lucasfilm and Disney straight-up kicking in the door on the way Star Wars canon works.

Prior to this, it was a pretty common misconception that anything outside of the films didn't really matter in the long-run, similarly to how Marvel Studios has evolved over the last few years. The non-film material was viewed as extraneous. But here, Lucasfilm directly rewarded viewers who had kept up with the non-film materials and issued a clear statement to audiences everywhere: in this galaxy, it really is all connected.