Alden Ehrenreich was chosen by Disney and Lucasfilms casting staff to be the new Han Solo in the upcoming Star Wars spin-off. The movie, which will be released in 2018, will be directed by the same team that managed the direction in The Lego Movie: Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Alden is now in negotiation with the franchise in order to arrange the benefits of playing the role in the super production, although both Alden and his agents have declined the offer to comment in the media.
Ford (and the rest) vs. Ehrenreich
Since the first Star Wars film in 1977, the character Han Solo has been performed by the one and only Harrison Ford, and in this version it will be the first time the movie will put someone else in the role. More than 2,000 actors were considered for the part since Han Solo will be a younger version of this film and Ford could not do the cut. Among the candidates were considered Miles Teller from Divergent, Taron Egerton from Eddie the Eagle, Jack Reynor from Sing Street and Scott Eastwood from Kingsman.
Ehrenreich was the star in Hail Caesar, a film by the Cohen brothers, and has worked with big stars like Woody Allen, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney and Francis Ford Coppola, but for most cinema lovers and movie critics, he is still new in the industry.
The role
Han Solo will be younger in this movie, and the focus on the character will be in his lifetime before joining the Rebel Alliance.
According to Lawrence Kasdan, one of the writers of Lucasfilms and part of the Screenplay team on “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Return of the Jedi”, and “The Force Awakens”, the main goal of the film is to reveal how Han Solo is 10 years younger than the current character, instead of just telling the story of his birth and childhood.
Ehrenreich, besides getting ready to be part on one of the most important movie franchise of all times, is allegedly filming a drama about the war in Iraq with Jennifer Aniston and is soon to film a movie directed by Warren Beatty, a producer with whom he has worked in the past.
Source: Hollywood Reporter