In Disney's grand, ambitious plan to produce an entire galaxy of Star Wars movies and spin-offs, the most interesting and controversial move has got to be the company's decision to produce a film about a young Han Solo. Disney's really pulling out the big guns for this spin-off: After working on The Force Awakens, legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan is returning with his son Jon Kasdan to write the script, and Lego Movie/21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are on board to direct. But the biggest question—and the trickiest part of the whole endeavor—has always been Han himself.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, that role will be inherited by 26-year-old Alden Ehrenreich, who is reportedly in final negotiations for the part. A young actor with a short but really impressive rap sheet, Ehrenreich, the story goes, was discovered by Steven Spielberg at a bat mitzvah, and made his feature-film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.
He would again work with Coppola on the comedy-horror Twixt and continue his streak of working with acclaimed directors in films like Chan-wook Park's Stoker, Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, and The Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar! It's in that last one that you might recognize Ehrenreich most, as scene-stealing cowboy actor Hobie Doyle.
Ehrenreich beat out 2,500 other young men vying for the role, including shortlisted favorites like Kingsman star Taron Egerton and Ansel Elgort.
The casting of Han Solo is a tricky prospect, mostly because Han Solo and Harrison Ford have long been perceived as one and the same. (Forty-plus years of fans adoring a movie will do that.) Lots of people can probably nail the look—tousled brown hair, impish smirk, shoulders wide enough to rock an unbuttoned vest—but fewer have the chops. In a perfect world, Harrison Ford would stay young forever and pilot the Falcon with Chewie until the end of time, but in the world we live in—where Disney wants to make a Han Solo film, because duh—Ehrenreich is an interesting, promising choice.
Now, who's going to play young Chewbacca?