More details have been released about the upcoming “young Han Solo” movie, which is due in 2018.

After Harrison Ford returns to the role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December, Lucasfilm will be taking us back in time for a standalone movie looking at Han Solo before we met him in the first Star Wars film.

No actor has yet been cast in the iconic role, but Lucasfilm president Katleen Kennedy confirmed Han wouldn’t be too much of a youngster: “He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s. We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”

She told Entertainment Weekly there had to be a “reason” for the film, adding: “Obviously the thing that Star Wars has always done so well is it doesn’t spend a lot of time [explaining] the stories that have come before. We don’t want to do that either.

“We don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.”

Kennedy teased: “I think the key here is that we are identifying an event or events in Han Solo’s life that gives you some idea of who he is and why he is the character we have all grown to love.

“Han Solo is the character inside Star Wars that everybody knows has a wit and sense of humour. So that’s what this should be.”

The directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, whose credits include Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, and the 21 Jump Street comedies, are on board to direct the stand-alone movie.

Veteran Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan is working on the script, alongside his son Jon, who was a writer on the TV series Freaks And Geeks.

Jon joined the project after his father was drafted to work with JJ Abrams on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, putting young Han Solo on hold.

“Since I did not expect to be sidetracked like this, when I came back to it I said to Kathy, you know, I would like Jon to write this with me,” Lawrence said.

“I could use some inspiration and Jon is really good, and he’s full of energy for the project, and I said, I think Jon would be a good one to do this. And we went forward that way.”

Kathleen also revealed what it was like to see 72-year-old Harrison step back onto the set as Han Solo, the character he first played in 1977.

“The minute Harrison and Chewie walked on board the Millennium Falcon — that was incredible,” she said. “Every single person on the set was stunned. I remember turning around, and there must have been 200 people gathered behind me — completely quiet. I didn’t even know they were there.

“The whole crew had stopped working, staring at the monitor, because it was so iconic.”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released on December 18.