Solo: A Star Wars Story faced an uphill battle with filmgoers for a variety of reasons, one of which was selling a new actor in a role that Harrison Ford had long made his own. But in an excerpt from the new book Star Wars Icons: Han Solo, we learn that Ford himself was insistent that his successor Alden Ehrenreich be allowed to bring his own personality to the character, without fretting too much about staying true to the template.
Lisa Dullard from Coffee With Kenobi took to Twitter with a passage from Gina McIntyre’s behind the scenes book. In the text is a quote from director Ron Howard, who says that the original Han Solo actor warned Lucasfilm not to “tie Alden’s hands” and make the actor “imitate what he had done,” adding that “he was imploring everyone to let the actor find his own way.”
Regardless of how you feel about Ehrenreich’s performance, the film ultimately had too much working against it, resulting in the first box office bomb of the Star Wars franchise. And while much of the cast seems game for a sequel, it’s quite possible that Solo will prove to be the actor’s sole outing in the role.
Incidentally, there’s a rumor making the rounds at the moment that Ford himself may return as Han in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX. Indeed, though the smuggler died at the hands of his son in The Force Awakens, it seems plausible enough that J.J. Abrams might find some way giving the character screen time in the grand finale of the Sequel Trilogy, if only through flashback.
While the evidence remains thin, we’ll find out if there’s any basis to the hearsay when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019, but in the meantime, Solo: A Star War Story is out on Netflix tomorrow.
