HAN SOLO origin film actor shortlist narrowed from over 2500 to about a dozen

I’m still not sure the world actually needs one, but a Han Solo spinoff origin film is on the way. The fact that the brilliant directing duo of Phil Lord & Chris Miller (The LEGO Movies, 21 Jump Street) will be helming this Star Wars spinoff goes a long to build up some excitement, but for me the deal breaker will be who they get to play the young scruffy-looking nerf herder. And last we heard, every actor and his cousin was being looked at for the role. To be more precise: Disney was reportedly over 2500 hopefuls so as to make sure they leave no acting stone unturned. No seriously, they probably even auditioned some rocks with faces painted on them.

But it looks like the epic search is starting to come to a close and bring us some results, as Variety‘s sources report that the field of potentials has now been winnowed down to only about a dozen names. We previously reported that the likes of Dave Franco, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort and Logan Lerman were already in the mix, alongside a bunch of other equally well-known faces. Well, reportedly they’re still there but they are now also joined by the likes of relative newcomers Jack Reynor, Emory Cohen, Blake Jenner and Scott Eastwood, among unnamed others.

It has previously been reported that Disney and Lucasfilm were doing tests with actors from as young as 17 all the way up to “old” guys aged 34. But with the exception of the 29-year old Eastwood (and yes, he is the son of Clint Eastwood), all the actors on this list are in their early to mid-20’s. And that actually gives us a big clue.

The Han Solo movie is still quite a while away from actually going into production – it’s scheduled to start on January 2017 – but it’s rumoured that one of the major reasons why producer/Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and co are so eager to get a deal in place now already, is because the young Solo will actually show up before that movie, making a cameo in Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Rogue One, the first of the planned spinoffs and scheduled to be released later this year, is said to take place between Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV – A New Hope which would make a 20-something Han Solo nearly the right age to be showing up there (Harrison Ford was in his early 30’s when he first played the role). Of course, we don’t how far before the events of A New Hope the movie is actually set, as it has to do with stealing the Death Star plans, but those were already seen back in Episode II – Attack of the Clones.

If the young Solo does cameo in Rogue One, it would certainly follow the same strategy that Disney and Marvel followed with their new iteration of Spider-Man, first introducing the youngster in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War in a small supporting role before giving him his own movie thereafter.

My last pick for the young Solo, Jurassic World‘s Nick Robinson, is nowhere to be found on this list (though he could still be in the mix) so if I was forced to pick from the remaining names, none of whom actually say “Han Solo, intergalactic smuggler and scoundrel” to me, it would probably be Ansel Elgort or Logan Lerman just based purely on looks and talent. What do you guys think? And would you like a young Han Solo showing up in Rogue One? Let us know in the comments below.

Last Updated: January 12, 2016