Whiplash’s Miles Teller, The Fault in Our Stars’ Ansel Elgort and 21 Jump Street’s Dave Franco are among the better-known names on Disney’s shortlist to play the young version of Han Solo in a forthcoming new Star Wars film, reports Variety.
The untitled spin-off film, which is being directed by The Lego Movie’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller from a screenplay by The Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens’ writer Lawrence Kasdan, is due to go into production early next year. The studio has now reportedly picked a shortlist of around a dozen actors from thousands of potentials.
Other names on the list, which has not been confirmed by Disney, include Clint Eastwood’s son Scott, a 29-year-old actor who was been making a career in Hollywood in films such as the upcoming Oliver Stone political thriller Snowden and comic-book romp Suicide Squad, and Transformers: Age of Extinction star Jack Reynor, 23. Percy Jackson’s Logan Lerman, 23, Brooklyn’s Emery Cohen, 25, and Glee’s Blake Jenner, 23, complete the reported shortlist.
Variety reports that the new Han Solo could make a cameo appearance in the Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, which is currently shooting for a December release date. Gareth Edwards’ film is set prior to the events of 1977’s Star Wars, and details the efforts of a heroic band of rebels to steal the plans of the first Death Star.
The new Solo would therefore be a few years younger than Harrison Ford when he first played the role at 37, though most of the actors on the shortlist are at least a decade younger than that. Teller, panned for Fantastic Four but highly praised for Oscar-winner Whiplash, is 28, Elgort is 21 and Franco is the eldest, at 30.
Disney offshoot Marvel is using the same cameo approach to introduce its new Spider-Man, British actor Tom Holland, who will first appear as the masked webslinger in Captain America: Civil War before getting his own standalone film.
The enormous success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is expected to hit $2bn at the global box office after smashing all-time records on both sides of the Atlantic, has catapulted Rogue One and the young Solo movie to the heart of the public consciousness. According to US ticketing service Fandango, the former film is the most anticipated big budget release of 2016, ahead of Pixar sequel Finding Dory and superhero smackdowns Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War.
In other Solo news, Ford himself sparked speculation about the future of the sardonic space smuggler in the Force Awakens timeline by suggesting the character may not have died, after all, in JJ Abrams’s film. Speaking at the Golden Globes, he reportedly told Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman: “He’s resting … Is he dead? He’s resting.”
Some reports suggest Ford, who was apparently murdered by his son Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens, could yet return for a future movie. But the actor could easily be referring to the new, younger, incarnation of the sometime Rebel Alliance war hero.
- The Guardian