Solo: The Aurra Sing Connection Explained

This Star Wars article contains spoilers.

Solo: A Star Wars Story introduces fans to a younger Han Solo as well as a slew of new characters and returning ones, including one surprising cameo you won’t see coming. As the film zips from Han’s homeworld of Corellia to Kessel to other corners of the galaxy far, far away, Solo also presents many callbacks to other Star Wars adventures.  

One of the most surprising connections comes courtesy of Woody Harrelson’s Tobias Beckett, the gunslinging smuggler who takes in Han at a pivotal moment in the young hero’s life. Beckett has been in the game for years by the time we meet him in Solo. It’s not clear how old Beckett is during the film, but he’s at least old enough to have had a run-in with one of the most famous bounty hunters of the Clone Wars. 

As revealed by Lando midway through the film, Beckett is not just known for being a conniving smuggler who’s fast with his guns and is willing to do whatever it takes to end up on top. He’s also known for having killed Aurra Sing. Pushed to her death, in fact, according to Lando. 

If the name Aurra Sing sounds familiar to you, it’s because she’s a bounty hunter who made her first appearance in The Phantom Menace back in 1999. Hailing from Nar Shaddaa, the infamous “Smuggler’s Moon,” we get our first glimpse of her, as played by actress Michonne Bourriague, during the annual Boonta Eve Classic podrace on Tatooine. You can see her watching from a balcony on Beggar’s Canyon as Anakin Skywalker and the rest of the competitors zoom through the track. 

Aurra was originally created by the film’s design director, Doug Chiang, who drew up a sketch after George Lucas requested more background characters for the podracing sequence. This bounty hunter, known as “Babe Fett” in the earliest concept art, would go on to appear in Star Wars books, comics, and The Clone Wars animated series.

Through the years, Aurra Sing became a known associate of other infamous scum, including bounty hunters Cad Bane, Jango Fett, Boba Fett, and Bossk as well as smuggler and con man Hondo Ohnaka and even Darth Maul. During the Clone Wars, she worked for Count Dooku and the Separatists.

It’s no surprise, then, that Aurra crossed paths with Beckett at one point. They undoubtedly traveled the same circles and Aurra ultimately paid for it. Whether we’ll ever get to see exactly how the two met or why Beckett pushed Aurra to her death remains to be seen. What we do know is that, despite her absence from the screen since the end of The Clone Wars, there’s still a lot of space to tell Aurra Sing stories. At least one more. 

In the meantime, Beckett will be getting a one-shot from Marvel simply titled Beckett #1. It’s out on Aug. 15.