SPECULATION Does anyone who's not named Han, Lando and Chewie need to die?

You don't need that much explanation. There are only 3 other major characters - Qi'ra, Beckett and L3-37. Of the first two, at least one is a traitor who is going to die, the other will most likely die to prove how serious everything is. Paul Bettany's evil ganster is also unlikely to survive. L3 is probably the only question mark. People like Val and Rio Durant will probably just go on doing their thing.

 

I think Qi'Ra and Beckett either need to die or betray Han (which should then cause Han to kill either) because Han shouldn't have any "family" except Chewie. Last Shot made it seem like L3 died but that could be just me. Rio Durant and Val, who the hell knows. Dryden Vos I assume will die.

 

Is it actually? Maybe it's more "Raiders of the Lost Ark" kind of fun.

 

Well, we need proper motivation for Han to go from wide-eyed excitable scamp in the beginning (mostly what we've seen of Han in the trailers thus far, which is also partly why people are saying Alden doesn't seem "right": it's because we're seeing early-stages Han) to being a cynical, sarcastic, untrusting person. Something has to happen for that to occur. I think that will be a toxic combo of being double crossed (Qi'ra, after falling in love with her? Beckett, after trusting him?) and death of those important to him (again Qi'ra and Beckett). At least one is going to double cross him and at least one of them is going to die. Storytelling 101. How do we establish motivations? How do we establish character arcs? Well, certain things need to happen. Traumas or major events in a character's life are they way to do that. I see no other way for it to happen to Han in this story to cause him to be what he is when we meet him in A New Hope.

 

Why does absence need to be explained. It is not as if they're all part of the Rebel Alliance, Empire or Hutts. The Galaxy is a big place.

 

No, there is no reason all the other characters have to die for continuity or anything. Galaxies are huge places populated by billions or even trillions of beings and droids.

We don't know everyone Han, Chewie, and Lando met in their lives. They could be doing anything anywhere.

There may be internal story reasons or thematic necessity but there is no baseline requirement at all.

 

People like to "emplot" every character they meet in a multimedia saga. They're like: you make a movie about Augustus and these people start complaining it is a shame that that the Qin emperor and Jesus Christ - and Brian from Life of Brian - are not included in the plot.

 

The simple way of looking at things is that Han seemingly hadn't seen Lando in 20-odd years by the time ESB rolls around. Accordingly, there's no issue with the other characters just being "out there, somewhere" by the time the ESB credits roll either. Lando could, and very likely is, just one of many of Han's former comrades who have a dubious loyalty to him. Lando just happened to be the guy in the area at the right time, right place, from Han's past. Nothing is contradicted by the other new characters from this movie still being alive by the end. If they die, fair enough, good to have the heart-strings pulled in a movie, but theoretically if the Falcon had been in the region of, say, Val's system in ESB, maybe he'd have visited her instead. There's no issue with any of them living. Let's just hope their stories are told if they do

 

I don't think anyone has to die. When you think about it we've only seen the odd day in Han's life. so there is no reason why people he hanged out with previously cant survive.
It doesn't mean they have to survive either though. Completly depends on the story.

 

They definitely don't HAVE to die. But it would make for better motivation (and a better story?) for Han to become the Han we know and love (i.e. cranky, not trusting in others, skeptical, cynical) if deaths or betrayals (or both) affect him and change him from the wide-eyed, excited, overeager, positive ("I've got a good feeling about this.") guy we will seemingly meet at the beginning of Solo.

 

I hope most of them survived.

 

There are 3 definite deaths of members of Han's crew and one certainly involves a double-cross which by necessity needed to happen as lesson for Han and in order to sculpt his chracter as we know him.