Production continues apace for the young Han Solo movie, which is due out May 25, 2018. And director Ron Howard’s teases grow a bit more specific, or at least, his pictures are more in focus. After sharing a shadowy photo of himself on the set with Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian on a monitor in the background, Howard stepped up his game and posted a clearer snapshot, one in which Paul Bettany gives a thumbs-up:
We don’t know who Bettany’s playing in the movie or what he’s approving of—maybe he really likes the wardrobe?—but at least he’s actually in the same room as Howard, and not part of a screenshot from a FaceTime conversation. The director’s latest dispatch from the set has no familiar faces, but it’s still piquing people’s interest.
So what do we have here? It looks like an elevator shaft, and, if we can take Howard’s “Spicey?” caption at face value, said elevator shaft could be in a spice mine. That spice mine is likely one on Kessel, where Wookiees and other species were forced into labor camps. The spice mines were only mentioned in passing in the movies, so there’s a lot of extrapolating going on here. But if it is a look at Kessel–one of the shittiest parts of it, anyway–then it’s possible that what Howard’s actually teasing is the famous Kessel run, which Han, who’s played by Alden Ehrenreich here, made in the Millennium Falcon in 12 parscecs, don’tcha know. It makes sense for the film to contain Han’s best-known exploits, but there’s really no way of knowing for sure that’s what Howard’s teasing here. Maybe he’s just making a Dune joke?