'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Has Warwick Davis Reprise One Of His Previous 'Star Wars' Roles
We're still a little over a week away from Solo: A Star Wars Story hitting theaters. But since the film played the Cannes Film Festival, there have been some screenings a bit earlier in advance than usual, and that means some interesting details are coming to light. We're not going to dive into any of the spoilers from the movie just yet, but we do have one intriguing detail that even the most hardcore Star Wars fans wouldn't realize upon their first viewing of Solo.
Warwick Davis first appeared in the Star Wars saga as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi and since then he's had little cameo roles in The Phantom Menace, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and Rogue One (seen above). We already knew the actor was also appearing in Solo: A Star Wars Story as well, but now we know who he's playing, and it appears to be one of the characters he portrayed in one of the previous Star Wars films.
Warwick Davis Solo Cameo
The image above comes from a recently released TV spot for Solo: A Star Wars Story (via Star Wars Underworld), which doesn't tell us exactly who this character is that Warwick Davis is playing. But the official credits list released to press that contains details on character names and whatnot reveals that the role Davis has in Solo is the same role he played in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace back in 1999.
Funnily enough, Warwick Davis actually played two roles in The Phantom Menace. First, he played Anakin Skywalker's little Rodian friend Wald. He makes a quick appearance alongside Anakin's human friend Kitster, both mocking him for saying that he's entering the Boonta Eve podrace on Tattooine. However, it's the second role Davis played who appears to be making a comeback.
The second role Davis played in The Phantom Menace was a little extra role alongside Watto. Davis appeared as a human character named Weazel in the Toydarian's box seats for the podrace, though some fans thought he was playing his character Willow, which just so happened to have been directed by Solo's Ron Howard.
Weazel was friends with Watto, but apparently he bet for Anakin to cross the finish line and came away a winner after Anakin got first place. Background details on the character indicate that he's a weapons dealer, which would explain his role in Solo.
Don't read beyond the image below if you don't want any minor spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Weazel appears to have found himself a crew. He's one of the marauders among the crew of the film's villain, Enfys Nest, and it's likely he's their go-to guy for getting weapons to pull of their heists. When we see him, he has quite the cool weapon in his hands, which make him more intimidating than his stature might let on. His role in Solo isn't a large one, making only a couple appearances on screen, though he does get a line in the movie.
Without giving anything else away, we'll say that Weazel's appearance in Solo comes at a pivotal point in the film during a meeting between our heroes and Enfys Nest. But if you want to see how that plays out, you'll have to wait until the movie hits theaters on May 25, 2018.