As soon as I heard that sci-fi icon Harrison Ford had been cast as Colonel Graff, the cunning colonel in charge of Battle School, I started to flip through Ender’s Game again, puzzled because the actor was so different from my prior mental depiction of the character. Now, I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.
Throughout Ender’s Game, Graff ruthlessly manipulates Ender, separating him from his classmates, and prioritizing his training above even the lives of other students, in a carefully constructed plan to make the boy a perfect commander to lead the human forces against the buggers. However, Orson Scott Card doesn’t paint Graff as a monster; instead, the colonel repeatedly shows affection for Ender as he would his own son, though Ender always sees him as an opponent.
The more I consider it, the more excited I am about Ford taking on the role. He definitely has the gruff professionalism down pat, as demonstrated by the film’s trailers, and if he puts his best foot forward with the part, I am fully convinced that this is a role Ford can absolutely nail. Think of it as practice for his role as an older Han Solo in the new Star Wars films.
