The search to find an actor to play a young Han Solo in Phil Lord and Chris Milller’s upcoming Star Wars spinoff film has been going on now for way more 12 parsecs. We’ve seen long lists and short lists of potential suitors for the coveted role, but it seems that we may just have a frontrunner as Playlist are reporting that Alden Ehrenreich has emerged as the studio favourite for the highly coveted role.
Over the last few months we had heard of several other contenders to play the young version of beloved Corellian smuggler made famous by Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars trilogy as well as most recently in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Names like Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman) were also bandied about just last month, but it would seem that Ehrenreich has shot first when it came to catching the eye of Lucasfilm and Disney.
Egerton already has a successful franchise to his name in Kingsman and Reynor… well, I’ve only ever seen Reynor in that terrible Transformers movie and either he was so bland I can barely remember him, or Michael Bay had just baysploded my nervous system into shut down for the film’s excruciating running time. Meanwhile Ehrenreich is in that prime spot of having built a string of low-key but noteworthy performances up to his most recent very critically praised turn in the Coen Bros’ Hail, Caesar!, but without really becoming a household name. Early contenders like Miles Teller and the like may be great actors, but they also bring with them an association to other roles. Ehrenreich is just fresh enough that he could be Han Solo.
Not that he actually looks that much like a young Han Solo though, which is definitely going to be a sticking point for many should he officially get the gig. Personally, I’m not too fussed – though I am a little fussy – about the physical resemblance as long as he can nail that incredible combination of cool swagger and seat-of-his-pants desperation that Ford made look so effortless when he turned a scruffy-looking nerf herder into a cultural icon in the 1970’s.
There’s been no official word from the studios, so this could all be a gigantic red herring, but this looks like a fairly good bet. With the still untitled movie being released on May 25, 2018, there’s still plenty of time for Disney to tap a totally new actor for the gig.
And bee-tee-dub, if you’ve been dying to point out that a parsec is actually a unit of space and not time, then you may just be an even bigger geek than I am.
Last Updated: April 15, 2016
