Tobias Beckett

"Let me give you some advice. Assume everyone will betray you and you will never be disappointed."

- Tobias Beckett to Han Solo

Tobias Beckett was a human male professional thief who worked for the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate during the era of the Galactic Empire. A native of Glee Anselm, Beckett organized a crew to help with his heist missions. Although he became a mentor to Han Solo, a young mudtrooper who joined Beckett's group, Beckett was a survivor who quietly worked out angles that enabled him to come out ahead. He made use of many blasters, including the RSKF-44 heavy blaster and DG-29 heavy blaster pistol. He also owned a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol before he gave it to Solo.

Early life
At some point before 10 BBY, Tobias Beckett met the bounty hunter Aurra Sing and pushed her to her death. Sing's death was later recalled to Beckett while talking with Lando Calrissian, though Beckett claimed that he just gave Sing a push and that it was the fall that killed her.

Hovun IV heist
Beckett and his gang went to Hovun IV on a mission for Crimson Dawn. There, Beckett, posing as a Death priest, pretended to Force choke Rio Durant in order to scare several sabacc players away from Durant's game. After players left, Beckett congratulated Durant on pulling off the trick. Beckett asked Val if she placed the tracker on Dvorad, and she said she did. Beckett and his gang then went to the dock to find Dvorad in order to steal Identichips. Beckett was able to jump onto Dvorad's speeder, punched him, and made it to Dvorad's ship.

Beckett and his gang were held at gunpoint by Dvorad and his ship until a creature attacked. As his gang and Dvorad fought the creature, Beckett boarded the ship and fought his way past Dvorad's guards. Aboard, Beckett was able to find the the chips and make his way back to Val and Durant in order to make their escape before the creature pulled Dvorad's ship into the depths. As they left, Beckett shot down Durant's idea about keeping some of the chips for themselves instead of giving all of them to Crimson Dawn's leader, Dryden Vos. Beckett then summoned the Rampart and left Hovun IV. As the Rampart made its way to Munt Ontdal, Beckett tried to think of a way to leave Crimson Dawn. After landing on Munt Ontdal, Beckett took his speeder to meet with Vos. However, he came under attack by several knife-wielding thieves. Beckett, seeing it as as a setup, tried to escape but was knocked out by Enfys Nest, leader of the Cloud-Riders. Despite knowing Vos would arrive shortly, Beckett was told by Val that Nest faked the mission. Beckett, to prevent Nest from getting the chips, blew them and the Rampart up. Despite wanting to finish Nest off, Beckett was convinced to let them go for the day. Beckett and his gang were then confronted by several stormtroopers, but he lied to them by saying that the explosion was caused by black-market radioactive fuel. Beckett, Val, and Durant then decided to resume their death priest scheme.

Undercover on Mimban
During the Mimban campaign, Beckett was found with his crew, disguised as a Captain of the Imperial Army. At some point during the battle, Beckett asked who was in charge, since their commanding officer had recently perished. Han Solo, a mudtrooper with the 224th Imperial Armored Division, informed Beckett that he was in fact the ranking officer. Beckett then led his men through the battle. While observing a ship, he met the young Solo, who wanted to join them as part of their crew. A member of his crew, Rio Durant, had doubts about letting Solo join them, but Beckett decided to give the boy an opportunity by leading him to be locked up for desertion. Solo was put in a chamber, where he was to be fed to the Wookiee Chewbacca. Solo ultimately was able to escape with Chewbacca, who initially intended to devour Solo. Beckett left with his crew, stealing the ship they observed earlier, but while in mid-takeoff they found Han and Chewbacca running towards them, waving for them to let them onto the ship. Beckett ordered Durant to lower the ship to let Solo and Chewbacca board.

Heist on the Conveyex
Tobias Beckett was a member of Crimson Dawn, a criminal organization led by Dryden Vos. Beckett was instructed to retrieve a crate of coaxium from a 20-T Railcrawler conveyex transport on the planet Vandor; he went on this mission with his lover, Val, and Durant. They were accompanied by Solo and Chewbacca.

Upon arriving at Vandor, the crew ate dinner over a campfire and had a brief conversation about Han and Chewbacca's motivation for participating in the mission. Solo simply stated that there was someone he left on Corellia three years ago and that he would return there to free her from her horrible life there. Val stated that everyone needed someone, even Beckett. Beckett began deconstructing one of his blasters and chucked it to Han. Han kept this blaster throughout the rest of his life as a smuggler and a rebel.

In the morning, Beckett, Val and Han observed the transport carrying the coaxium as well as some patrolling Viper droids, while discussing the plan for the heist. The conveyex was moving towards a bridge over a ravine. The plan was for Val to place explosives on the supports of the bridge. The other members of the crew (save Durant, the pilot) were to board the conveyex and attach cables from the carriage which contained the coaxium to their ship. Then, as the conveyex neared the bridge, Val was to destroy the bridge while the crew disconnected the coaxium carriage from the rest of the conveyex, allowing the ship to lift the target carriage away while the rest of the conveyex fell to the bottom of the ravine. Val noted that if the Viper droids were alerted, the heist would become much more difficult, prompting Han to also survey the Viper droids.

Soon the heist began. Val went further up the track to place thermal detonators, Durant flew their ship over the transport, and Beckett, Han and Chewbacca leaped aboard the transport. They opened up a hatch and gazed upon the coaxium inside, enough to power a whole star fleet. A fight ensued with some Imperial troopers aboard the transport, but Chewbacca disconnected the troopers' portion of the conveyex, leaving them behind as the rest of the conveyex moved onwards. The crew then connected four cables from their ship to the last carriage of the conveyex in order to lift it.

The heist did not proceed smoothly, however, as Val spotted the Cloud-Riders, led by Enfys Nest, moving towards the conveyex. One Cloud-Rider boarded the crew's ship and had a brief firefight with Durant, who was gravely injured, diminishing his ability to pilot the ship. Val was surrounded by a swarm of viper droids. She told Beckett over the comm how much she loved him, and detonated the explosives while still near them. Han took Durant's place as pilot and tried carrying the shipment with only one cable attached to the carriage. Enfys Nest and her Cloud-Riders had cut off the other three and replaced them with their own. Shortly after, Durant perished too.

Chewbacca uncoupled the carriage from the others so that they could lift the shipment off the tracks. Han and the Cloud-Riders had to eventually lift the shipment, for they were running out of track. Both tried to take the shipment with them but failed as they were both pulling opposite directions. As both Han and the Cloud-Riders neared a mountain, Han detached the shipment of coaxium, fearing a crash. The Cloud-Riders did so as well. The coaxium was lost. After they landed, Beckett made tombstones in remembrance of his fallen comrades.

He reported to Dryden Vos and was able to avoid execution by promising to retrieve unrefined coaxium from Kessel. Beckett had to make room for Qi'ra on his crew in accordance with Vos' wishes.

Mission to Kessel
Taken to Kessel by Lando Calrissian and L3-37 on the Millennium Falcon, Beckett successfully obtained the necessary amount of coaxium and travelled with his accomplices to Savareen so the unstable material could be refined and they could rendezvous with Dryden Vos. During the mission, Beckett posed as a guard for Qi'ra, directing the fake captives, Han and Chewie, out of the Falcon. He later followed Qi'ra, L3, the Pyke who met them and its guards. While Qi'ra went into another room to negotiate with the Pyke, Beckett took out the guards outside, then watched Qi'ra fight the Pyke. After a moment of unnerving silence from the room, he opened the door, only to be astonished to see a Pyke laying on the floor with Qi'ra walking out of the room telling him that she was taught Teräs Käsi by Dryden Vos. Once they got to the consoles to help Han to get to the vault of coaxium, L3 had freed some slave droids, who also freed the other slaves in the mine. The slaves inevitably rebelled against the guards, allowing Beckett and the others to escape aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Refine on Savareen and Death
On Savareen, Beckett showed his true colors to Han, Qi'ra, and Chewbacca. After Han had told Beckett their plan, Beckett reported to Vos. When they met Vos, Vos surprised the team by announcing that the coaxium was fake, which he knew because of his "inside man," whom Han assumed to be Qi'ra but was indeed Beckett. He had informed Vos of Han's plan to sell the real shipment to the Cloud Riders, a rebellion group led by Enfys Nest. Han announced that he anticipated Beckett's deception&mdash;the coaxium they were holding was real. Beckett betrayed the three and abandoned Dryden. He attempted to take the coaxium for himself, but as he explained his motives, he was shot by Han. Before passing away, Beckett praised Han for his actions in addition to revealing that he actually planned to return to Glee Anselm and learn to play the Valachord.

Legacy
"Heard about a job. Big shot gangster, putting together a crew."

- Tobias Beckett

Even though Beckett was killed for his betrayal, Han recalled to Chewbacca that Beckett said that he heard about some big-shot gangster putting together a job. Beckett would have an impact on Solo after his death, as from that point on, Han tended to call every person younger than him "kid," such Luke Skywalker.

Behind the scenes
"I play a guy named Beckett, who's kind of a criminal and a mentor to Han."

- Woody Harrelson, on Tobias Beckett

Tobias Beckett appears in Solo: A Star Wars Story and is portrayed by Woody Harrelson. Early fan speculation believed that Harrelson would be playing Garris Shrike&mdash;Han Solo's mentor in the Star Wars Legends continuity who first appeared in A. C. Crispin's The Han Solo Trilogy book series&mdash;but this theory was proven incorrect when Harrelson revealed Beckett's name on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

According to screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan, Beckett is based on Long John Silver, the main antagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel Treasure Island. Throughout the production of Solo, Beckett's first name was Mattias; The Art of Solo: A Star Wars Story only refers to him as "Mattias Beckett," implying that the use of the name "Tobias" was a late decision in production.

Beckett's death was written as a reference to the infamous "Han shot first" controversy, which debates whether Han Solo or Greedo shoot first in the Special Edition of the 1977 original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In Solo, Han shoots Beckett mid-sentence. Kasdan Sr., who wrote the script of the movie with his son Jon Kasdan, said about it that "There can be no question that Han shoots first." Furthermore, Kasdan Sr. thinks that Han indeed shot first as he expressed during an interview with StarWars.com.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Beckett 1
 * Solo: A Star Wars Story
 * Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition
 * Solo: A Star Wars Story: Meet the Crew
 * Solo: A Star Wars Story: Train Heist
 * Solo Adaptation 2