Have you ever heard the tragedy of Solo: A Star Wars Story? In its attempt to cash in on its purchase of Lucasfilm, Disney greenlit a slew of Star Wars movies to come out in quick succession — not just a sequel trilogy, but a couple of standalone spinoffs to hit theaters in between. Among them was a Han Solo movie exploring the origin story of the iconic smuggler.
Now, one could argue that the original Star Wars trilogy was Han’s origin story, following a space pirate’s redemption arc as he fights for a cause bigger than himself and falls in love along the way. But Disney wanted to know where he got his jacket from, where he got his dice from, where he got the name “Solo,” and how he technically made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, despite parsec being a unit of distance, because he took a shortcut that shortened the length of the run to 12 parsecs (yeah, that part was really necessary).
So, they cast up-and-comer Alden Ehrenreich — the breakout star of the Coen brothers’ Hollywood satire Hail, Caesar! — to do the impossible: replace Harrison Ford as Han Solo. And against all odds, Ehrenreich did a fantastic job. You’re not just watching a young actor do a Harrison Ford impression; you’re watching young Han Solo — every bit the charmer we remember from the original trilogy, but with the naivety of youth.
Solo suffered from changing directors mid-production, but Ehrenreich’s portrayal of young Han is consistently great throughout the film. Whether he teams up with the Mandalorian or gets another “solo” adventure, he deserves a second shot at the role in a less troubled production.
Alden Ehrenreich Deserves Another Shot At Playing Han Solo (Under Better Circumstances)
Solo had one of the most notoriously fraught productions in recent Hollywood history. Project Hail Mary directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller started off making Solo as a Guardians of the Galaxy-style romp with a fun, light tone and a lot of humor. That version of the film sounds delightful, honestly, especially in the wake of Lord and Miller’s latest space movie, but Lucasfilm soon got cold feet about this approach to the tone. Their feet got so cold, in fact, that they fired Lord and Miller and replaced them with Ron Howard in the middle of filming.
Howard did as good a job as anyone could expect salvaging a half-finished movie, and Ehrenreich did a much better job than anyone could’ve expected giving a lead performance under the direction of two totally different (and, in some cases, diametrically opposed) visions. In subsequent years, Ehrenreich’s roles in Weapons and Fair Play and Oppenheimer and Cocaine Bear and Ironheart have only proven him to be an even better actor than we thought. He deserves another chance at the role, under less disastrous behind-the-scenes circumstances.
Young Han Solo Needs A TV Show, Not A Movie
The biggest problem with Solo is that it didn’t need to be a movie. It works best when it’s digging into Han’s tragic backstory and how it shaped him, and that stuff would work better in a TV show. Ewan McGregor did his best work as Obi-Wan in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series (even if the series itself was far from a masterpiece), because it gave him the space to really sink his teeth into what the character was going through.
Ehrenreich deserves a full Han Solo series on Disney+, bridging the gap between Solo and A New Hope. Lucasfilm has had a lot of success with these gritty, grounded, character-driven Star Wars stories. Just look at the success of Andor and The Mandalorian and Maul: Shadow Lord. Star Wars works best when it uses the construct of a galaxy far, far away to explore universal human emotions.
- TV Show(s)
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The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Cast
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Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
