There Was “No Place” In The Last Jedi For Han’s Funeral
One of the things that left fans a bit sad about The Last Jedi was the lack of funeral for fan-favorite character Han Solo, who died by Kylo Ren’s hands in The Force Awakens. True, there wasn’t a body for them to mourn, but the memory of him still needed to be honored in many fans minds. The upcoming novelization of the film will feature the funeral scene, and that has excited debate about why the film doesn’t have it.
Director Rian Johnson talked about it with Collider, and he said quite bluntly, “[There was no debate of showing Han Solo’s funeral], just because pacing-wise it didn’t have a place,” Johnson said.
He also noted that Star Wars history didn’t really have these moments of grief.
“It’s tough in Star Wars because I always think about the mourning that Luke gives to Ben’s death, which is all of four-and-a-half seconds before, ‘Come on kid we’re not out of this yet’ and then boom, you’re into ‘Yay, woo-hoo! Don’t get cocky!’” Johnson explained. “There’s the moment for it, but it’s not long. We don’t have time for our sorrows, commanders. That’s kind of the thing of Star Wars; you don’t really linger on grief because you’re moving forward.”
While that may be true, Luke did give the ceremonial Jedi burial to his father in Return of the Jedi. Same with Obi-Wan to Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace. And Padme got a burial in Revenge of the Sith. Still, he isn’t wrong in the film may not have been able to fit it. The movie was packed with content, and a funeral scene likely would’ve taken several minutes.