Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 7 Reasons Killing Han Solo Would Be A Terrible Mistake

5. It's Too Depressing For Star Wars

One of the major criticisms aimed at the Star Wars prequel films was associated with a perceived "seriousness." Indeed, the more politically-minded Episodes I to III seemed to forget what made the original movies so great in the first place - their sense of fun. In the lead-up to The Force Awakens, then, director J.J. Abrams has promised a motion picture more akin to the original films, and he has used the word "fun" on a number of occasions to describe the tone that he hopes to achieve with Episode VII. Great as that sounds, though, it's hard to imagine any Star Wars movie feeling "fun" if it involves the death of Han Solo. Any Episode featuring that particular event is going to be horrific. Not to mention that a death of this kind - of a major hero character - feels way too dark when viewed in context with the rest of the series. Star Wars films have "dark moments," yes, and The Empire Strikes Back is a somewhat "dark" film, but it doesn't kill off any of its protagonists. In fact, nobody of importance dies in The Empire Strikes Back. The worst thing that happens to any person is that Luke Skywalker gets his hand chopped off. If audiences are prepping themselves for a "fun" time, what worser way to spoil the sense of giddy excitement than a scene in which Han gets gunned down by a dozen Stormtroopers or is slashed open with a lightsaber? There's dark, and then there's dark.