Han Solo (/ˈhɑːn ˈsoʊloʊ/) is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He was introduced in the 1977 film Star Wars, and later appeared in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), portrayed by Harrison Ford in all five films. In Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), a younger version of the character is played by Alden Ehrenreich. In the animated web series Forces of Destiny (2017–2018), Solo is voiced by A.J. LoCascio and Kiff VandenHeuvel. Ford was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Solo in Star Wars, and won the award for his performance in The Force Awakens.

In the original trilogy, Solo and his Wookiee friend Chewbacca are smugglers who are hired to transport Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to Alderaan so they can deliver stolen plans for the Death Star. Solo eventually joins the Rebel Alliance in its struggle against the Galactic Empire, and falls in love with Princess Leia. In the sequel trilogy, Solo joins forces with Leia, the scavenger Rey and the former stormtrooper Finn in a campaign against the First Order, led by his son, Kylo Ren, who eventually kills him.

Solo was chosen as the 14th greatest film hero by the American Film Institute, and was selected as the fourth greatest film character by Empire magazine. Entertainment Weekly ranked Solo as the seventh coolest hero in popular culture.

George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise and both wrote and directed the original Star Wars film. In the earliest version of the screenplay, Solo was an alien of the Ureallian race with green skin, enormous gills and no nose. He was also a member of the "Jedi Bendu" and was acquainted with General Skywalker. The next draft of the script depicted Solo as a bearded, flamboyant pirate; Lucas made him human to better develop his relationships with the other human characters. After this alteration, Chewbacca became his alien sidekick. By the third draft, Solo had developed into the "tough James Dean style starpilot" that would appear in the finished film. Lucas also used Humphrey Bogart as a reference point for the character.

While developing the story for the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas described Solo as "coming to grips with accepting responsibility." An early plot line involved him being separated from Luke while on a crucial mission. Lucas thought Solo should meet with a business leader who deals with the Empire and with whom Solo has "some kind of relationship ... like [a] stepfather". In the finished film, Solo instead unites with his old friend Lando Calrissian, an administrator willing to conduct business with the Empire. In early screenplay drafts of Revenge of the Sith (2005), a ten-year-old Solo helps the Jedi Master Yoda locate General Grievous. The early scripts also revealed that Solo was raised by Chewbacca on the Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk. Some concept art of the young Solo was created, but Lucas ultimately decided to remove the character from the film.

The script for The Force Awakens was written by Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan and the film's director, J. J. Abrams. In an early draft, Solo reconciled with Leia and survived the film, but Abrams felt his character was not contributing to the plot in a meaningful way. He realized that Solo's death at the hands of his son would move the story forward, while also giving Kylo Ren the chance to develop into a worthy successor to Darth Vader. Solo's appearance in the film was influenced by that of Rooster Cogburn in the film True Grit (2010).

When casting Star Wars, Lucas had a preference for unknown actors. He initially resisted casting Ford as Solo, since Ford had previously worked with him on American Graffiti, and was therefore not unknown. Instead, the director asked Ford to assist with auditions by reading lines with other actors. However, Lucas was eventually won over by Ford, and cast him as Solo over many other actors who auditioned. Mark Hamill, who plays Solo's companion Luke Skywalker, admired Ford's ability to re-write his character's dialogue. He observed Ford crossing out lines in the script and replacing them with modified versions which he felt were more appropriate for Solo.

In 1997, Lucas described Solo as "a cynical loner who realizes the importance of being part of a group and helping for the common good". In 2004, he described the character as the selfish sidekick of the selfless Luke.