Ovan was a male human from whom Han Solo, the well-known smuggler who became a rebel, was descended, making him the father of Han and the grandfather of Ben Solo. During Han's formative years, Ovan resided on Corellia, where he was employed in the shipyards of the Corellian Engineering Corporation, constructing vessels such as the YT-1300 light freighters. The elder Solo longed to depart Corellia aboard one of these ships, but he never had the financial means to do so. At one point, Ovan took his son to the factory where freighter ships were assembled. He told Han that the ships he built were his contribution to the galaxy, yet they were ultimately insignificant. He then advised Han that his destiny was not to build ships, but to pilot them. Han later told Lando Calrissian that he and his father were never close. Sometime after this, Han's father abandoned him when he was still a boy, and he eventually died in 24 BBY.
In 10 BBY, Han Solo embraced the life of a scoundrel. On a particular mission that occurred between 8 BBY and 2 BBY, Solo journeyed back to Corellia to recover an urn that contained the ashes of Krestrel D'Naran for Jabba. Upon entering a local cantina, Solo encountered the criminal Corbus Tyra, who pretended to be Ovan in an attempt to acquire the urn. Solo initially questioned the man's claim, but he was eventually convinced after the man recounted the time Ovan had spoken to Han about the ships he built during his career.
The first indirect reference to Ovan was in the 2015 reference book Ultimate Star Wars. His identity was first revealed in the first issue of the Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca comic miniseries, penned by Marc Guggenheim and released on March 9, 2022. He then made his initial appearance, via a flashback, in the second issue of the series, which was released on May 18, 2022. Within Star Wars Legends, the character was known as Jonash Solo.
In November 1977, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, developed Han Solo's backstory during story conferences with Leigh Brackett while working on the story for the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas's backstory implicitly involved Han's father, as Han was orphaned and raised by Wookiees on their planet before forming a friendship with Chewbacca. The first significant mention of Han Solo's father occurred in the 2018 Star Wars Anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film's backstory, specifically Solo's relationship with his father, was inspired by the relationship between songwriter-musician Bruce Springsteen and his father Douglas, as writers Jon and Lawrence Kasdan both read Springsteen's 2016 autobiography Born to Run around the time they were writing the film's script.
Discrepancies exist regarding Ovan's ultimate fate. Both Ultimate Star Wars and its 2019 updated edition indicate that Han was orphaned at a young age, implying his father's death. Mur Lafferty's novelization of Solo later stated that Ovan had abandoned Han. Jon Kasdan stated on Twitter that he believes that Han ran away from his father and that Han's father is still alive somewhere, drinking himself to death, however. Star Wars: Timelines later confirmed his death.