Lucasfilm Narrows Search For Young Han Solo To These Contenders
Update: Check out the very bottom of this post for the latest.
After reportedly looking at over 2,500 actors for the man who is going to play a young Han Solo in the upcoming Star Wars spin-off movie, Disney and Lucasfilm have reportedly narrowed down the selection to about twelve actors. Variety reports that as of now, some of those contenders include Miles Teller (above left), Ansel Elgort (above right), Dave Franco (above center), Transformers: Age of Extinction's Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, Brooklyn’s Emory Cohen, and Everybody Wants Some’s Blake Jenner.
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller won’t begin shooting the movie until a year from now (January of 2017), but Variety’s sources indicate that they’re going to make a casting decision in the next couple of weeks. The reason for the relatively quick decision? Because a young Solo may have a cameo in the prequel Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which only has a month left of shooting before principal photography is complete. That film takes place in between Episode III and Episode IV, and concerns the theft of the plans for the Death Star. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that Solo could have been tangentially involved in that somehow, considering his smuggling past.
Still, writers Lawrence and Jon Kasdan better be careful not to give Solo enough information that he’d have in-depth knowledge about anything that would make the character's actions in the original trilogy not make sense. If he actually gets his hands on the plans for the Death Star in this prequel movie, for example, how would anyone be able to explain why Han wouldn't reveal that to anyone in the OT?
Of these actors listed (how in the hell did Jack Reynor make the cut?), I'm partial to Teller and Cohen, and I kind of hope they go with Cohen just because he's the unconventional choice here. I'd prefer to see an unknown in the part, and that might be as close as we get (if the remaining unnamed members of the twelve-person shortlist aren't actual unknowns, that is).
One thing seems certain: Harrison Ford isn't interested in giving the winner of the role any pointers.
The Han Solo origin film is scheduled to hit theaters on May 25, 2018.
Update: EW's Anthony Breznican took to Twitter to share his own intel: