Thandie Newton's Val

We're starting to get more and more info on the cast and characters of Solo: A Star Wars Story, but one character that I think is still pretty mysterious is Thandie Newton's Val.



I love Newton in Westworld, she absolutely kills it as Maeve, so I've been eagerly anticipating her role in Solo.

One common theory with this character is that she'll be Sana Starros, the future ex "wife" of Han Solo.



While Sana is a pretty cool character on her own and this would be a great opportunity to further strengthen the connected universe by making a tie in to the comics, I hardly think this is necessary. Plus, unless the name "Val" is a red herring, we can pretty well say that she's not Sana.

That being said, I have two theories about her character-

1) She's a member of Beckett/Han's crew.

2) She's a rival mercenary, explaining how she's been featured far less than characters like Qi'Ra, Lando, and Beckett.

Or, it could simply be that as great as Newton is, she simply doesn't yet have the star power that Glover, Clarke, and Harrelson do.

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Is Val secretely Sana, disguised from the audience for a payoff during the film? Is she going to be one of our heroes, or an intriguing rogue? Or something else?

I think the one thing we can reasonably rule out is her being in the Empire- that outfit doesn't look particularly Imperial.