Han Solo’s Star Wars blaster expected to fetch more than £400,000 at auction
The DL-44 blaster used in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ was previously thought lost
The original blaster used by Harrison Ford when portraying Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope is expected to fetch up to £410,000 ($500,000) at auction.
The prop firearm was previously missing and presumed lost before it was rediscovered by Rock Island Auction Company (RIAC) in Illinois, US.
Now, the Star Wars blaster will be available to bid on at the company’s premier auction, which is held from 26-28 August in Rock Island, Illinois (more information here).
The DL-44 blaster is the sole surviving blaster prop of the three used for filming the original Star Wars trilogy, according to RIAC. Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977 and was the first film released in what went on to become a sci-fi franchise phenomenon.
Ford’s prop was based on the German-made Mauser C96, one of the first and most recognisable semi-automatic handguns ever made. The prop designers wanted to give Solo, the captain of the Millennium Falcon, an old west gunslinger feel.
In 2018, Solo’s blaster from 1983’s Return of the Jedi sold to Ripley’s Believe it or Not! for £451,000 ($550,000).
More recently an original X-wing miniature prop went for £1.8m ($2.3m) in June.
Meanwhile, Disney+ has continued to roll out more spin-off programmes in the Star Wars universe including Obi-Wan Kenobi, which premiered in May and follows on from other projects The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian.
In the latest spin-off, Ewan McGregor reprises his role as Jedi Master after 17 years away.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the show, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy described how she discussed original scripts for the series penned by Hossein Amini.
She also explained how she ended up replacing Amini with Joby Harold in order to turn the dark story into something brighter and more hopeful.
“We’re looking, ultimately, to make a hopeful, uplifting story. And it’s tricky when you’re starting with a character in the state that Obi-Wan would be in coming off of Revenge of the Sith. That’s a pretty bleak period of time. You can’t just wave the magic wand with any writer and arrive at a story that necessarily reflects what you want to feel,” she said.