It’s Official: Meet The New Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich
Han Solo is getting a fresh look in a new Star Wars spin-off movie thanks to Alden Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich has been officially confirmed to pick up the role made famous by Harrison Ford after it was announced by Disney at the Star Wars Celebration in London’s ExCel centre earlier this morning.
Celebration goes wild as Alden Ehrenreich walks out on stage as the new #HanSolo #SWCE pic.twitter.com/eYZ6crVQVO
— Sidney Smeets (@advocaatsmeets) July 17, 2016
Sure, it might have been the worst kept Hollywood secret of late – but now we can sleep easy having it made official. Plus, the announcement gave us a bunch of french hints and clues for what we can expect from upcoming Star Wars films.
The event included a star-studded Star Wars cast in attendance including Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and John Boyega. Director of ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Rian Johnson also appeared to confirm that both Hamill and Fisher would be in Episode IX, presumably reprising their roles as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
In the meantime, the yet to be titled Han Solo project will provide a background of Han Solo’s early life. The flick is being scripted by Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jake Kasdan, who were screenwriters on ‘Empire Strikes Back‘, ‘Return of the Jedi’ and ‘The Force Awakens‘.
Despite auditioning more than 3,000 potential Han Solos, Director of the project Phil Lord (who is heading up the project alongside Chris Miller) said,
“He was literally the first person to audition”
Ehrenreich is best known for playing a cowboy in the Coen brothers’ ‘Hail Caesar!‘. Mashable reports, that other actors reportedly considered for the role included, Jack Reynor from Transformers: Age of Extinction, Fury star, Logan Lerman, Brooklyn actor, Emory Cohen, and Everybody Wants Some actor, Blake Jenner.
Watch: Alden Ehrenreich take the stage for the first time after being announced as the new #HanSolo #SWCE pic.twitter.com/92HzG8eVj8
— Fandango MOVIECLIPS (@MOVIECLIPS) July 17, 2016
As expected, the reaction on Twitter has been a mixed one, with people grumbling that the news was either predictable or doubting Ehrenreich could live up to the role. Others were prepared to give him a chance.
Movie hasn't even started filming and y'all hating him. Fuck! STOP IT! I'm giving him a chance! #HanSolo #SWCE
— Paolo Monroy (@paoloCODMW3) July 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/djchema78/status/754811521155203072
Not going to lie, very disappointed that there was not title for #episode8 No further casting for #HanSolo and no future movie announcement.
— Kristian Harloff (@KristianHarloff) July 17, 2016
I don't know how I feel about Alden Ehrenreich playing as Han Solo. There's only ONE MAN who is our Han Solo! pic.twitter.com/BBfa4GJ3fK
— Brandon Sum (@TheXtreminator) July 17, 2016
And it confirmed the worst.. I am so disappointed and heartbroken that I have never been.. #HanSolo #AldenEhrenreich pic.twitter.com/9FIIXkX5A4
— Alex (@1hornedangel) July 17, 2016
Header image via Twitter: @1horneddangel