The Star Wars Anthology movie exploring Han Solo and Chewbacca's early years on the Millennium Falcon is gearing up to start shooting soon.

Co-writer Lawrence Kasdan revealed a January start date for the London production while attending the AJFF Icon Award for Contributions to the Cinematic Arts recently (via ScreenRant).

"You know, Chris Miller and Phil Lord are going to direct it," he reiterated. "They're great, funny and imaginative and we've had a great time together.

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"My son [Jon] and I wrote the script and Chris and Phil are working on it and they're about to move to London to start shooting in January. And it should be fun."

Lawrence Kasdan has previously called the Han Solo movie his final Star Wars project - although now it looks like he'll be involved in Episodes VIII and IX at least in an adviser capacity.

"[Episode VIII director] Rian [Johnson] is a friend of mine," he said. "I'm getting to know Colin Trevorrow, who is going to direct Episode IX, so I feel very involved with it."

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Alden Ehrenreich is reportedly the odds-on favourite to play Young Han in his prequel, having topped Dave Franco, Logan Lerman, Jack Reynor, Ansel Elgort, Scott Eastwood, Emory Cohen and Blake Jenner to become Lucasfilm's number one choice.

Star Wars' Han Solo movie is scheduled to open on May 25, 2018, just five months after the release of Star Wars Episode VIII.