New trailer for Star Wars spin-off Solo is a fan's delight

Five weeks away from its cinema debut, a new extended trailer for Solo has dropped — and for fans of the Star Wars movies, it's a total delight.

The two-minute clip of the Ron Howard-directed movie shows a youthful Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) meeting Chewbacca and Lando for the first time, taking his first trip on a shiny and new Millennium Falcon, and ingratiating himself with a series of no-doubt shady characters.

"I've got a really good feeling about this," the young Solo says in one scene, utterly twisting one of the Star Wars series most-quoted lines.

Later he tells Chewie to "push it" — again tweaking one of the character's signature expressions.

Also starring Game of Thrones alumnus Emilia Clarke and Woody Harrelson, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the second standalone film set in that far away galaxy made since Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm in 2012.

The film also marks the shortest period between Star Wars movies. While each of the original and prequel trilogy films were separated by three years, more recently fans have been getting a new hit of Star Wars each December.

Last December's The Last Jedi, episode eight in the main saga, was a mixed success for Disney. Its global box office of $US1.3 billion made it the ninth-highest grossing film of all time (at the time; it has since been bumped to 10th place by Marvel's The Black Panther) but significantly below episode seven's global box office taking of just over $2 billion.

Some diehard fans also criticised elements of The Last Jedi, particularly its PC sensibilities.

Will Solo win back the disaffected fans? The first indication will come on May 15, when Solo premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.

It will screen in cinemas around the world from May 25.