Rio Durant

"Woah, is that a Wookiee?"

- Rio Durant

Rio Durant was a four-armed Ardennian pilot who lived during the reign of the Galactic Empire. Durant carried out dangerous missions alongside the scoundrel Tobias Beckett for years and was good-natured and up for any challenge.

Biography
By the reign of the Galactic Empire, Rio Durant was already working with the humans Tobias Beckett and Val. They formed a crew which carried out risky though profitable heists. Over the time, Durant carried several dangerous missions alongside Beckett, serving as his pilot.

Meeting with Han Solo
Ten years before the Battle of Yavin, during a battle at Mimban, Rio infiltrated the Mimban Stormtrooper troops along Beckett and Val. There, they met the young Han Solo, who wanted to join them as part of their crew. Durant had doubts in letting Solo join them, but Beckett decided to give the boy an opportunity by leading him to be locked for insubordination. Solo was ultimately able to escape with the Wookiee Chewbacca, who was initially intended to devour Solo, so Beckett ordered Rio to lower the ship to let Solo and Chewbacca to board it, causing Rio to become surprised with the Wookiee's presence.

Once they arrived at Vandor-1, Beckett's crew spied the 20-T Railcrawler conveyex transport that they had been planning to steal in order to acquire its Coaxium cargo to pay Beckett's debt with the crime lord Dryden Vos, leader of Crimson Dawn. As the crew spied, they wished for the absence of Enfys Nest and the Cloud-Riders the next day. That night, before sleeping with the campfire they had made, Durant spoke with Solo, mocking about his abilities to fly.

The Conveyex heist and death
The next day, while Beckett along Solo and Chewbacca managed to take possession of the cargo wagon by getting rid of the range troopers and having Chewbacca separating it with his strenght, Rio positioned the ship in such way to let Solo and Beckett to hook the wagon in order to escape with the cargo from the scene.

Nest and the Cloud-Riders appeared on scene with the intentions to steal the Coaxium from Beckett's hands. Two of Nest's marauders managed to board Beckett's ship and shot at Durant. Rio was able to shoot them off his ship, but was fatally wound in the arms by one of the marauders. Han was then forced to go up into the ship to help Durant. Though Rio stated that it wasn't a serious wound, it became too evident that it was when Durant started to succumb to it. Anticipating that he was not going to survive, Rio asked Han for forgiveness, saying to the young man that he was a better pilot than him. Then, Durant passed away from his wounds, leaving Solo to take control of the ship.

Behind the scenes
Rio Durant is voiced by Jon Favreau in the 2018 Star Wars Anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story. Durant is Favreau's second Star Wars role; he had previously voiced Pre Vizsla in seven episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Beckett 1
 * Solo: A Star Wars Story