The role of Han Solo may have launched Harrison Ford to international superstardom and turned him into one of the most famous actors on the planet, but he’s made it pretty obvious over the years that he doesn’t hold a particularly special place in his heart for the roguish smuggler. To Ford, Han was just one of many characters that he played during his distinguished career, and his complete lack of interest in the wider Star Wars mythology has been hilarious to witness.
The 78 year-old has long since made his peace with the fact that every interview he does will involve at least one question about Han Solo, and his answers are always worth a laugh. No doubt, Ford must’ve secretly been hoping that Solo: A Star Wars Story would do huge business at the box office and go on to launch a franchise, leading to Alden Ehrenreich shouldering some of the responsibility when it came to talking about the captain of the Millennium Falcon.
Obviously that never happened, though, and the Anthology blockbuster instead became the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie ever, but in the space of just two years, Solo has found new life as a firm favorite among the fanbase. In a recent interview, Ron Howard spoke a bit about the divisive film and revealed what Ford thought of the origin story, mentioning how he gave his replacement the all-important seal of approval.
“Harrison Ford liked Solo and very much and was supportive when he saw it. He was so gracious and complimentary to Alden. He said some things publicly, but privately, it was really great to see him put his hand on Alden’s shoulder and say, ‘great job kid’, and Alden worked so hard and it was a very high-risk situation for him and he was a cool customer and was really a pleasure to work with, as was that entire cast, they are just a great bunch.”
Having played both Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford knows a thing or two about how to turn an interesting character on paper into a legendary one on the screen, but despite the best efforts of everyone involved with the production, Solo: A Star Wars Story just couldn’t deliver the massive hit that the studio and the fans were expecting it to be.
