Over the numerous Star Wars movies from the past decade, many characters have been introduced and killed off. The 2018 Disney movie Solo: A Star Wars Story revealed the backstory of the legendary hero Han Solo (Elden Ehrenreich) and his girlfriend, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke). During this film, Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) was introduced, a gangster who carried out heists regularly. His wife, Val, was played by Thandiwe Newton, but the character didn’t last very long in the film.

Newton’s character was killed off early in the movie after a heist went wrong.

The 48-year-old actor has now spoken out about seeing her character’s journey stunted before it had the chance to flourish.

She said in a new interview: “I felt disappointed by Star Wars that my character was killed. And, actually, in the script, she wasn’t killed. It happened during filming.

“It was much more just to do with the time we had to do the scenes. It’s much easier just to have me die than it is to have me fall into a vacuum of space so I can come back sometime.” (Via Inverse)

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Solo, which was made by Disney, was famously hit with issues surrounding its previous directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, leaving the film mid-production. Their exit forced Ron Howard to step in and reshoot some scenes.

Newton argued that her character could have “come back at some point” instead of being killed off.

She said: “But when we came to filming, as far as I was concerned and was aware when it came to filming that scene, it was too huge a set-piece to create, so they just had me blow up and I’m done.”

Although the death scene was filmed and ultimately put into the film, Newton didn’t agree with the decision. She said: “I remembered at the time thinking: ‘This is a big, big mistake.'”

What do you think? Should Thandiwe Newton’s character have been killed off? Join the debate in the comments section here

Emilia Clarke’s character, Qi’ra, was introduced in Solo as well, eventually becoming the next leader of the gangster organisation.

Although the film’s sequels will not be produced, Qi’ra was recently brought back in comic book form.

When she learned about Qi’ra’s return, Clarke gushed: “It means so much. It means the absolute world. I know her backstory. I know her history.

“Maybe the movie didn’t get to go there, but that was such an honour and a privilege to be part of that universe as an actor.”

Clarke continued: “So then, to see the character actually be taken on to the origin of all of it – bringing it on home to the family in that way – cemented it in a way. I was not expecting to feel as moved as I was by that.”

Solo earned one of the lowest box offices of all Star Wars movies, claiming $392 million on a $275 million budget.

Earlier this year director Howard said of Solo: “There’s no sequel planned.”

The Star Wars films are available on Disney Plus now.

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