Book Review: 'The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story'

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© 2018 Abrams and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

On May 25, 2018, New York City-based publisher Abrams Books released Phil Szostak's The Art of Solo: A Star Wars, the latest entry in the long-running The Art of Star Wars series that began with Carol Titleman's classic 1979 work, The Art of Star Wars.  Featuring production paintings, costume designs, sketches and concept paintings for props, spaceships, and the many characters that were imagined for the 10th live-action Star Wars movie, The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story is a treasure trove of graphic artwork created by some of Lucasfilm's most talented artists.





Concept art for the Vandor train heist by artist Thom Tenery. © 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)


Published on the same day that Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered, Szostak's fourth The Art of...book is divided thusly:



  • Foreword by Neil Lamont
  • Foreword by James Clyne
  • Introduction by Phil Szostak
  • Who's Who
  • Harry and the Boy
  • Han Solo
  • Qi'ra
  • The White Worms
  • Corellia
  • Chewbacca
  • Beckett
  • Beckett's Gang
  • Mimban
  • Enfys Nest
  • Dryden Vos and the Crimson Dawn
  • Lando Calrissian
  • Vandor
  • The Pyke Syndicate
  • Kessel
  • The Empire
  • Savareen
  • Coda
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
In stark contrast to The Art of Star Wars books devoted to the Original and Prequel Trilogy films, The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story does not follow the movie's chronology, either in the context of production or the in-universe sequence of events. Instead, as the Table of Contents clearly demonstrates, the book thematically presents the artwork used to help Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and eventually, Ron Howard to visualize the ideas and characters of Jon and Lawrence Kasdan's screenplay for Lucasfilm's second standalone "Anthology" Star Wars adventure. 

Chewbacca and Han Solo in a concept painting by James Clyne and Vincent Jenkins.© 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 


Another divergence from the pre-Disney era of Lucasfilm Art of...books is that The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story does not devote any space to promotional artwork, such as logo designs and posters used to "sell" the film to prospective audiences. Lucasfilm did commission quite a few teaser and release posters, including the mildly controversial "gun-less" posters made specifically for Brazil and a few other countries that place limits on depictions of weapons in the art that promote family-friendly films. (These posters were never used in the United States, but gun rights zealots posted facsimiles of the Brazilian market posters on Facebook and other social media in an effort to falsely accuse Disney-owned Lucasfilm of pushing an "SJW" gun-control agenda. This attempt was so inept that the perps of this smear attack failed to edit the Portuguese language credits on the posters, thus making the accusation easy to disprove.) 


The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story is a visually stunning book. It is filled with many eye-popping illustrations created by a team of talented designers and conceptual artists, many of whom, including Ian McCaig, Doug Chiang, and Ryan Church, have worked on Star Wars films as far back as the 1999-2005 Prequel Trilogy. This works rather well because Solo; A Star Wars Story is set between  Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and at least one of the iconic figures from the Prequel/Clone Wars era makes a small but vital cameo appearance in the film. 

As I said earlier, The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story is a visual record of the evolution of the designs used in the film and includes storyboards and concept art that was done for the Lord-Miller version prior to their dismissal as co-directors in mid-2017.  This is evident in the sections devoted to Dryden Vos, the suave-but-deadly leader of the Crimson Dawn criminal organization. Although Szostak never mentions any of the directors involved in the making of Solo: A Star Wars Story, the book does show that Dryden Vos was originally intended to be a dinosaur-like alien, but later became a mostly-human alien when Paul Bettany came on board as Vos during Howard's reshoots as a replacement for an actor who was no longer available after Lord and Miller were fired.

I like The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story, even though it is not like most of the Lucas era Art of Star Wars books. Like its Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  stablemates (all written by Phil Szostak), this 2018 Abrams book does not include the script from the film, which was one of the features that I loved about four of the six The Art of...volumes published between 1979 and 2006. However, it does provide readers and Star Wars buffs alike with a visual record of the evolving look of a good but underappreciated cinematic adventure set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." 

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