Alden Ehrenreich will play Han Solo in Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s in-development Han Solo movie, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The search for an actor who could capture the spirit of a young Harrison Ford has been going for months, with Disney reportedly considering 2,500 actors for the role. Which sounds like a lot of time wasted, since they eventually settled on a shortlist of six actors absent of unknowns. Reportedly the short list included Miles Teller (Whiplash), Ansel Elgort (Divergent), Emory Cohen (Brooklyn), Jack Reynor (Transformers 4) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman).
Their final pick, Ehrenreich, first appeared on-screen in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro and had several other film roles before his meatiest performance to date as a cowboy actor navigating 1950’s Hollywood in the Coen Bros. Hail, Caesar! (our review).
We’ll have to wait until 2018 to learn exactly what Ehrenreich will get up to as Han Solo, though early rumors indicate the movie will explore the early days of Solo’s relationship with Chewbacca. With Han Solo dying in Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Lord and Miller’s Han Solo movie could provide the opposite bookend, bracketing his Star Wars Original Trilogy days.
While Ehrenreich may look less like a young Ford than Egerton, anyone who has seen Hail, Caesar! could imagine the actor’s capacity for easy charm and mischief.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, best known for directing 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie , may well bring us the most light-hearted Star Wars movie yet, falling on the heels of this year’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and 2017’s Star Wars: Episode VIII.
