Can he act like a scoundrel? This actor might be the next Han Solo

By Rick Marshall Published April 18, 2016

Don’t get cocky just yet, Star Wars fans, but we might be closer to seeing the new, younger face of everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerfherder.

An unconfirmed report indicates that Hail, Caesar! actor Alden Ehrenreich is now the leading contender to play a young Han Solo in the upcoming, still-untitled spinoff movie that will explore the popular Star Wars character’s early years. The film is set to be directed by The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Recommended Videos

According to Deadline, Ehrenreich’s performance during the most recent screen test pushed him to the lead in the competitive audition process, which had him competing against Kingsman: The Secret Service star Taron Egerton and Transformers: Age of Extinction actor Jack Reynor (among other actors) for the role.

There’s still no official word on who will play Han Solo, though, but the outlet suggests an announcement will come soon.

Related: Stream Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Amazon Video

Ehrenreich most recently appeared in Hail, Caesar! as a western star in 1951 Hollywood, and has also portrayed characters in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Chan-wook Park’s Stoker, and the 2013 young-adult adaptation Beautiful Creatures. The 26-year-old actor was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for his Beautiful Creatures role.

Little is known about the plot of the still-untitled Han Solo movie, which is rumored to be set during the character’s formative years as a smuggler and all-around scoundrel in the Star Wars universe. It has been confirmed, however, that the film will also feature Han’s copilot Chewbacca, and will likely provide an origin story of sorts for their partnership. Joonas Suotamo, who played Chewbacca throughout much of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is expected to reprise the role for the Han Solo movie.

Longtime star Wars franchise veterans Lawrence Kasdan and Jon Kasdan are providing the script for the film, which is scheduled to hit theaters May 25, 2018.

Former Contributing Editor, Entertainment

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Topics

Entertainment

Amazon Prime Video’s latest trick is natural lip-sync for dubbed audio

At last, translated audio will look natural on the actors' faces. And yeah, AI is involved.

Amazon Prime Video lip-sync technology

I have watched plenty of stuff on streaming platforms where the translated audio doesn't feel natural on the faces of the actors appearing on the screen. It just looks odd and takes away the fun from watching dubbed films and TV shows. I would prefer to watch content with the original audio and see the translated captions, rather than deal with the asynchrony between the audio and facial expressions. Amazon finally has a solution.

The company is launching a new lip-sync technology on Prime Video that will use AI and VFX to sync the lip movement of actors so that they appear to naturally speak the dialog, even if it has been translated and dubbed from another language. The technology is making its debut with the first and second seasons of Maxton Hall, and will also be used when the third season premieres on the platform.

Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Hope director Na Hong-jin on making his sci-fi epic after a decade

Filmmaker Na Hong-jin opens up about his decade-long journey to make Hope

Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon in the film Hope.

Ten years after releasing his horror film The Wailing, filmmaker Na Hong-jin has returned with a new feature, the epic sci-fi thriller Hope. Set in the town of Hope Harbor, this South Korean film follows the police chief (Hwang Jung-min), his deputy (Hoyeon), and a team of hunters as they try to kill a giant creature rampaging through their village, leaving death and destruction in its path.

Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Hope delivers a suspenseful, gory, and action-packed adventure in the vein of Jaws and Attack on Titan. Having already premiered in South Korea, the movie has received a 78% "Fresh" rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Acclaimed film studio NEON is now set to distribute the movie throughout the United States, giving American audiences a chance to see this unhinged, ultraviolent adventure.

Entertainment

This wild new TV mount moves your screen without you touching it

TVs can already adjust their picture and sound without much help from you. Perlegear now wants the physical screen to adapt to you as well.

Indoors, Interior Design, Lamp

TVs have become incredibly smart over the years. They can automatically tweak picture quality, adjust sound for your room, and recommend what you should watch next. Yet once you bolt one to the wall, there’s one decidedly old-fashioned thing about it: it’s staying exactly where you put it.

Perlegear has an interesting solution at IFA 2026. The company is showing off the AX1 Smart Adaptive Mount, a motorized TV mount that detects where you’re watching from and automatically moves the television to a more comfortable height. It’s an idea that sounds a little excessive until you think about how many different ways we use TVs today. You might be sitting on the couch for a movie, standing up for a workout, playing a motion-controlled game, or have kids watching from the floor. The ideal screen position for one isn’t necessarily great for the others.