UPDATE! SOLO: EW’s Interview With Our New Han Solo – Alden Ehrenreich Plus Harrison Ford’s Contribution to the Project

The Breznican blitz continues, as the EW writer has released his one on one interview with our new Han Solo, Alden Ehrenreich. Let’s take a look at their exchange!

 

Anthony Breznican brings us his one on one interview for EW with the young man taking over the captain’s chair of the Millennium Falcon this May!

Anthony Breznican: Tell me your perspective on it. How would you characterize the journey this character is on?

Alden Ehrenreich: I think it tells the story of a young man pursuing a dream to get out of his pretty rough upbringing, and a lot of the story is him trying to make this dream come true and finding out that it’s a lot harder than he had imagined.

AB: He seems like someone who didn’t have a lot of people who cared about him at a young age. So he goes through life with shields up. 

AE: Yeah, that’s all basically right. One of the fun things about this movie but also one of the things that really shapes him is that it takes place in a real dark underworld of the Star Wars universe.

 

Lack of belonging, no parents, perhaps some abandonment tropes triggering a sense of trying to prove oneself, it’s one of the most, if not the most prominent Star Wars theme throughout the saga, and it’s ultimately up to our characters, both protagonists and antagonists in these situations, to decide their own fate through their choices.

 

As many have wondered, did Ehrenreich meet with Harrison Ford at any point? Well it turns out he did. Some light is shed here, but as Breznican hints, more details on this will be revealed later on.

AB: Could share some of what he was able to tell you about playing this character?

AE: He said a great thing when I met him. “Tell them I told you everything you needed to know, and that you can’t tell anyone.” I wanted to meet him because I just felt generally it wouldn’t be right to do the movie without some kind of contact with him, and I’m really glad I did. He was very, very supportive. And it’s just cool to have lunch with Harrison Ford.

 

Han Solo’s love interest in the film is Qi’ra, someone who he has known for a long time, but also someone whose life in the years since has taken a different path than Han’s stubborn narrow viewed way of moving forward.

AB: Let’s talk about the other people in this character’s life. Qi’ra, Emilia Clarke’s character, is a big part of young Han Solo’s early years. What do we need to know about the two of them? 

AE: Yeah, they’ve known each other for a long time and she’s a very important person in his life

AB: Is she more savvy than he is? Less idealistic? How would you contrast their personalities?

AE: I think she has a slightly different way of handling herself in this tough universe. She’s better at working the system rather than bucking against it

 

As we know Han meets Chewbacca in the film, but that’s not all, as Solo will meet his scoundrel counter-part, Lando Calrissian for the first time as well, though Ehrenreich skillfully evaded some of Breznican’s inquisition like flying through an asteroid field! One area he didn’t mind getting into was Han’s frame of mind, and in doing so he lauded writers Lawrence Kasdan and his son Jon to take the interview home.

AB: Can you give us a sense of what Han is like when we meet him at the start of the movie. Obviously, we see him evolve. What’s different from the guy we know?

AE: I think the main thing that’s different is that the Han we meet in this film is more of an idealist, he has certain dreams that he follows, and we watch how it affects him as those dreams meet new realities, realities that are harder and more challenging than he’d expected.

Can you say what his dream is? I assume it’s bigger than “smuggler.”

I can’t say exactly, but it definitely involves independence, and calling your own shots. I thought the Kasdans did a wonderful job of kind of retroactively coming up with what kind of background would lead him to becoming the character we all know.

Can you explain “independence”? Do you mean, he just wants to call his own shots — or is he indentured in some way?

Well, one thing that you kind of know about the Star Wars universe, but that you learn in a much more impactful way as you get into it, is that living in that universe is hard. Most people, especially during the reign of the Empire, are under the control of some kind of force or another. No pun intendedHaving the resources and stability to call your own shots, do what you want, have freedom, isn’t something that comes easily. So Han’s dream involves making that happen for himself.

Seems like he is forever trying to get out from under someone’s thumb. … Does Jabba have thumbs?

[Laughs] Yeah, I think you could say that. He is forever trying to do that.

 

 

So much props to Breznican for trying to get Ehrenreich to slip and give us a Jabba confirmation!

 

You can find the complete interview here at Entertainment Weekly

 

 

 

UPDATE!

 

The last article for the day from EW’s coverage on Solo: A Star Wars Story reveals that Harrison Ford actually had quite a bit of an impact on Alden and his understanding of the Solo character.

 

As we know Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is very familiar with Harrison Ford, who she knew back from the days when they were filming Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Kennedy worked as Steven Spielberg’s associate. Kathy told EW that she sent Ford the Solo script and the actor gave his appreciation of the story. She also added how Ford contributed to Alden’s perception of the character:

What [Ford] did so beautifully for Alden was he talked a lot about what he remembered when he first read Star Wars, and what George had done with Han. Who the character was and the conversations he had for so many years with George about how that character developed. He gave Alden that kind of insight which was invaluable. There were several times in the course of making the movie where Alden would actually recount some of the things that Harrison had pointed out. I think that was really, really helpful to him.

One of the secret meetings between Harrison Ford and Alden Ehrenreich

 

EW’s report also revealed that Alden was not the only one who sought guidance from Ford. After director Ron Howard took over the directing duties he also contacted Ford for an advice.

“Harrison’s a very thoughtful actor and an artist, and I wanted to know what he learned about the character. He said that Han is always torn between that sense that he was, in a way, an orphan, and therefore both yearned for connection with people and struggled with it at the same time. I thought that was pretty interesting.”

 

The article continues with a few more bits from Ford which he shared with Howard. For the full article make sure to go to EW. And you can watch Anthony Breznican’s clip on the subject below:

 


 

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John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast

"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."

John Hoey

John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."

76 thoughts on “UPDATE! SOLO: EW’s Interview With Our New Han Solo – Alden Ehrenreich Plus Harrison Ford’s Contribution to the Project

  • February 7, 2018 at 8:23 pm
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    lol does Jabba have thumbs

  • February 7, 2018 at 8:31 pm
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    Should have went with Anthony Ingruber

    • February 7, 2018 at 8:39 pm
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      … into obscurity?!

      The Celebrity Big Brother house. That’s Ingruber’s calling.

      • February 7, 2018 at 8:55 pm
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        The real question is why does Anthony Brenzican produce a story piece as if he’s in the MTV Real World confessional?

    • February 7, 2018 at 8:40 pm
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      Anthony Ingruber can’t act for shit. They weren’t casting an impressionist. They were casting a real actor who could carry an entire movie.

      • February 7, 2018 at 8:51 pm
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        To be objective here, Star Wars as a whole isn’t exactly a showcase for excellence in acting. All Ingruber needed to do was be Harrison Ford, which comes almost as easy to him as it does for Harrison Ford. Ford is almost always a charismatic onscreen presence, but let’s not kid ourselves… he’s not exactly a master thespian.

        I’ll argue any day that Ingruber was way more suited for the part than this guy. Too late now, but it’d be unfortunate if all other elements of this film are fantastic (which could very well be the case). It ain’t gonna hep Alden’s career any either.

        • February 7, 2018 at 9:05 pm
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          No. He has to make us believe he’s Han Solo. Not some talentless hack doing his favourite party piece. Was never going to happen anyway. He had his chance to audition, and he blew it.

          I couldn’t care less if Ehrenreich isn’t the double of Ford, or is lacking in the height department. Those points are purely nick-picky. He should be given the two hours to capture the essence of the character, and make the audience root for him. A strong actor should be able to do that.

          • February 7, 2018 at 9:10 pm
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            He’s not making me believe he’s Han Solo. I know it’s too late, and Alden’s probably a good guy, but yeah — he’s the glaring weak spot of this film, so far.

          • February 7, 2018 at 9:12 pm
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            To be fair, we’ve only seen a few seconds of him.

          • February 7, 2018 at 9:18 pm
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            I hear ya, Kenny. But I’d think if he really captured the essence, they would have showcased at least one textbook Han Solo moment in the trailers, but they didn’t. They buried him and distracted us with all the FX flashiness instead.

          • February 7, 2018 at 9:28 pm
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            1. At the end of the day it’s still supposed to be a SW film, flashy FX and all
            2. We should see the development of the young character through out the movie. The character is supposed to be in the age range of late teens to early 20s. We should see a side of Han we’ve never seen before. In order to accept him as Han Solo, you’ll need to watch the entire movie.

            Give the kid a chance to see what he can do.

          • February 7, 2018 at 9:30 pm
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            Yeah, but that’s another thing… he looks older than Han ’77.

          • February 8, 2018 at 2:25 am
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            beginning of the movie 18, most of the movie 24 (he meets Qira in the future and she is different…) so we have Han 24 and Han 29, that means Solo takes place like 5 years before Cantina

          • February 8, 2018 at 2:27 am
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            His age range was confirmed to be between 18-21/22 by Kathleen Kennedy.

        • February 7, 2018 at 9:49 pm
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          that’s why they are changing that. with these new movies. The acting has been phenomenal.

          • February 7, 2018 at 10:06 pm
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            In TFA, yes — I agree 100% (especially Daisy and Adam) and I felt thrilled about it. After that, they continued to hire otherwise phenomenal actors, but gave them some crappy material. Case in point — Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and Forest Whitaker are all actors I admire, but they were often cringe-worthy in Rogue One. Not their fault, just less attention was given to ironing out solid dialogue and pitch-perfect performances while trying to crank out the Star Wars film-o’-the-year on schedule.

        • February 7, 2018 at 11:07 pm
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          That’s only true for the prequels.
          The OT and the new movies are rather well acted. Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing etc. were all phenomenal in ANH. Alec G. even received a well deserved Ocar nomination for his Ben Kenobi…

          • February 7, 2018 at 11:21 pm
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            One could also argue the best acting performance in all of Star Wars was Ian McDiaramid (in all three prequels). I think stage actors like Ian, Peter, and Alec were somewhat more capable of directing themselves when confronted with someone as emotionally stunted as George Lucas behind the lens.

            But, as for the OT… Mark, Carrie, and Harrison were more-so iconic (as essentially playing variations of themselves), as opposed to being brilliant actors. Irvin Kershner challenged them and brought out exceptional performances in ESB, but ANH and ROTJ are average feats of acting, and saying that is being kind.

          • February 7, 2018 at 11:55 pm
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            I was going to write something pretty similar. I love the OT of course, but in part its despite the acting and the dialogue which is by no means better (or worse) than it is in the PT.

    • February 7, 2018 at 10:39 pm
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      While he can do a great Han Solo from lines already written and delivered by Ford himself, could he deliver new lines? If he failed the casting then I would say no, until those casting tapes are revealed and we can compare with the film.

      • February 7, 2018 at 10:51 pm
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        I don’t think he ( Ingruber ) was ever up for the role to be honest ( though I could be wrong ). He lives in the Netherlands and likely didn’t get an audition.
        I’ve said esewhere that it’s my strong belief that Ehrereich was favoured from day one due to his Spielberg connections.
        I actually think there are probably a dozen or more young Hollywood actors that could perhaps fit the bill of Young Han more convincingly.

        The film actually does look very good and immense fun from the trailer – will I buy Ehrenrech as Han?

        We’ll see.

        • February 7, 2018 at 11:00 pm
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          Would be a great pity if he didn’t at least have an audition. He deserves a shot

        • February 7, 2018 at 11:29 pm
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          Ingruber was indeed brought in and given an audition. He wasnt even on the top 20 list of finalist for the part.

          • February 7, 2018 at 11:39 pm
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            “His Spielberg Connections”

            He hasn’t appeared in a single movie produced or directed by Spielberg.

    • February 7, 2018 at 10:42 pm
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      Ingruber’s impression is NOT that good and the guy can’t act even when mimicking an existing performance. He looks a lot like Harrison but that’s all he has going for him. I’m buying a ticket to see a Lawrence Kasdan scripted Han Solo adventure. If I want to see a greta Harrison Ford impression I’ll Google Mark Hamill.

    • February 7, 2018 at 11:50 pm
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      I dunno. He sure looks like Han Solo, and sounds like him. But he was mimicking the dialogue/expressions and licking his lips between almost every line which kind of makes it look like it was a struggle for him. It’s hard to say if it’s better to go with someone who can naturally act like Solo or someone who looks like him. The casting is probably something fans will debate for eternity once the movie comes out and half the fan base says it sucked Crystal Skull style.

    • February 8, 2018 at 2:52 am
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      If Ingruber was in a lot more movies I would say….yeah

      But the fact he is barely anything more than as an extra or blink you miss it parts, I’d say good call on LFL not casting him

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ingruber

  • February 7, 2018 at 8:32 pm
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    The story sound good, I just hope this is really a one-off movie for Han Solo, even if it is successful, let some of the mystery remain a mystery.

  • February 7, 2018 at 9:07 pm
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    Han Solo morphs into a young John Saxon?

    • February 7, 2018 at 9:25 pm
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      I can’t unsee that now, dammit.

  • February 7, 2018 at 10:22 pm
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    I am glad he got to talk to Harrison Ford about playing the role before hand.

    • February 7, 2018 at 11:57 pm
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      ‘Look, kid. Just say the f’ing lines and get paid. Oh, and make sure that Lando guy doesn’t steal your clothes.’

    • February 8, 2018 at 12:13 am
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      Did you also fix the fact that Ingruber can’t act for carrots?

      • February 8, 2018 at 5:02 am
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        Since you mention carrots- why the heck isn’t Jaxxon in this movie?

        • February 9, 2018 at 12:36 am
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          Jaxxon and that blonde, hubba hubba

      • February 8, 2018 at 6:41 am
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        Was he not the younger version of Ford in Age of Adeline?

        • February 8, 2018 at 8:42 am
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          Have you actually seen that movie?

          1. Ford didn’t have that big a role in it
          2. Ingruber was hired because of his looks, not what he could do
          3. The limited screen time that he had, he wasn’t that convincing. He lacks range and has little presence
          4. It’s his one and only full-feature length movie that he’s appeared in. I wonder why?

          • February 8, 2018 at 7:12 pm
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            I’m beginning to wonder if he bullied you at school!

  • February 7, 2018 at 11:26 pm
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    If they can strike the same tone as R1, then I think I will like it.

  • February 7, 2018 at 11:36 pm
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    Lucasfilm: Next!
    Ingruber:
    Lucasfilm: We’ll be in touch, next!
    Ingruber: But I’m Anthony Ingruber, haven’t you seen my YouTube video
    Lucasfilm: Fuck off! Next!

    • February 8, 2018 at 12:23 am
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      Ingruber learned how to immitate already existed Han’s scenes, that doesn’t mean he can act like Han and wear a whole movie on his shoulders. Alden is amazing actor, and I would take amazing actor over immitator every time

      • February 8, 2018 at 12:59 am
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        I never really thought Ingruber’s Han impression was that good. He added a smugness to it that Harrison never had

        • February 8, 2018 at 3:16 am
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          You bring up an interesting point, Petar. The Han we see in this movie, is not going to be the Han we see in the older movies. Even looking at Star Wars to Return of the Jedi to The Force Awakens, Han’s character is dynamic. While Alden doesn’t necessarily look quite like him and doesn’t sound anything like him, his personality (Han’s) and what he’s looking to achieve at a young age is definitely going to change and shift as he gets older. There for, his mannerisms may feel different. I don’t know, I guess we’ll see. My point is, and a lot of what was already said in these articles is, if he was the same Han we already know, then there is no character arc which means the character doesn’t grow. That wouldn’t be good story telling.

          • February 8, 2018 at 3:59 am
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            That’s the problem in fandom today. Nobody wants to see character development, they all want character to be the same 10 or even 30 years later or before the last time we saw him. Characters change, and it’s called storytelling. Han changed a lot from beginning of ANH to the end of ANH, he could change 10 years before ANH also

  • February 7, 2018 at 11:50 pm
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    Yey, the more i see of Ehrenreich the more i like, u have my support 🙂

  • February 8, 2018 at 12:06 am
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    My God, so much negativity, I’m sick of reading comment section. I used to enjoy reading comments, even from people who don’t like the movie, to hear arguments why, and that was beauty of internet, but today, people just shit on everything before giving it a chance.
    All I read today is:
    – No thanks
    – My childhood is ruined
    – Race comments

    Fanboys who yelled ”George Lucas raped my childhood” now yelll ”Rian ruined my childhood, bring Georgie back”
    Fanboys who yelled ”We want STAR WARS movie every year” now yell ”Disney is milking the franchise”
    Fanboys who love Lando don’t want new black characters cause it is ”anti-white”

    Hypocrites

    Seriously I’m sick of that, I understand if someone doesn’t like something, I hated BvS, will I go to every single DC video and comment how I hated it, and I hate Zack Snyder? No, it’s just a movie I didn’t like, life goes on.
    Give it a fucking chance, or since You are already saying STAR WARS is ruined, why the fuck are You still wasting Your life commenting that on fitire STAR WARS movies ?
    Move on damn it, and let other people enjoy if You don’t enjoy it.
    Not saying movie will be great, but anticipating new movies and commenting it with other people is best part of being a STAR WARS fan, at least it was for me, and now I can’t enjoy in it, cause if someone didn’t like one movie, they want to ruin future experience to other people.
    STAR WARS is not ruined, fandom is spoiled!!!

    • February 8, 2018 at 1:53 am
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      You, sir, win the comment section today.

    • February 8, 2018 at 2:23 am
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      This is my new favorite poster on the Citadel.

    • February 8, 2018 at 2:32 am
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      People do not know what they want, and they just want attention.

    • February 8, 2018 at 3:44 am
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      Bravo

    • February 8, 2018 at 3:49 am
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      Ok, well I’m tired of people like yourself complaining about other people complaining.

      see, it swings both ways 🙂

      • February 8, 2018 at 4:04 am
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        Oh, you have REAL in your title. That means you’re an authority on this.

        You know how you can avoid people complaining about people complaining? Don’t come to a fan site and bitch about EVERYTHING related to said franchise.

        • February 8, 2018 at 4:17 am
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          In all fairness we all have sides to the story. The happy folk don’t like seeing negativity, but some fans don’t like the direction that Star Wars is taking. Is there really a bad guy here?

          Then again if you don’t have anything nice to say, why say it. What’s wrong with keeping it yourself. So I agree in that bitching about something does only does harm.

          • February 8, 2018 at 4:54 am
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            I think negative comments are healthy topic points when it’s constructive or relevant. Going full Jihadi over a film that’s not been released yet is ridiculous.

            I guess it’s a mindset thing, but I can’t imagine being angry if I thought a star wars film was awful… I’d probably still watch it a few times because you know, it’s star wars.

          • February 8, 2018 at 5:13 am
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            “Must of hit em’ pretty close to the mark to get em’ all riled up.”

            – The real Han Solo

            Deep down, they know these movies are terrible. That’s why they’re getting so defensive.

          • February 8, 2018 at 5:51 pm
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            No, actually I’ve enjoyed them immensely. Why I’m defensive is the fact I have to wade through post after post of trolls who have nothing better to do with their time before I can get to something positive.

            I don’t understand fans who have hated the last three movies coming here expecting things to change. You don’t like the new direction, we get it. It’s not changing. Either get over it or go away. It’s been the same negative crap for over two years and it’s stale now. You’re a vocal minority. Pipe down and go find something you do enjoy. Star Wars is incredibly profitable, and Disney and most fans are happy where it’s going.

          • February 8, 2018 at 7:10 pm
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            19 years … But who’s counting 🙂

      • February 8, 2018 at 5:21 am
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        If you’re tired of that, then it’s probably best to get off the damn site cause it’s just gonna be a viscous cycle.

    • February 8, 2018 at 9:01 am
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      Don’t stress it so much. Take solace that the extreme fringes often aren’t worth listening to anyway. They can’t add anything of value outside of I absolutely loved/hated everything.

      Either this sites popularity or the divisiveness of TLJ lured them here I can’t say. I do miss quieter times, where we could have a real conversation. Instead it typically gets buried behind the most annoying of derailments.

      Sadly almost any major commenting sections devolve into this.

  • February 8, 2018 at 3:50 am
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    Han Solo is a tough guy.
    Alden Ehrenreich is not a tough guy.

    Why this guy landed the part while better actors were passed over is quite the mystery.

    • February 8, 2018 at 4:02 am
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      Wow, you saw the movie already? How was it? I mean, I have theories of my own, but I’d love to know what you thought of it!!!

    • February 8, 2018 at 4:14 am
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      FAKE Star Wars Fan*

      Oh shit I’m gonna catch some flack for this

    • February 8, 2018 at 4:23 am
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      You know what’s also a mystery? A person who spends a bunch of time shitting every day on a movie franchise he now hates, instead of doing something else more productive with his time and developing other interests.

    • February 8, 2018 at 6:51 am
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      Well, then it’s a good thing Alden Ehrenreich is an actor.

      For reference see the Henry Winkler as “the Fonz”, Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, Henry Fonda in Once Upon A Time In The West.

      • February 8, 2018 at 7:46 am
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        Up-voted just for the spot-on Fonzie reference. 😉

        Henry Winkler is the best.

    • February 15, 2018 at 3:06 pm
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      Let me explain what an arc is…

  • February 8, 2018 at 6:39 am
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    And then Harrison Ford said, “But why am I even talking to you? You look nothing like me and sound nothing like me and you’re too short and what about that Ingruber kid?”

    Or no, he didn’t. Because he understands acting. And filmmaking. And he’s not a dude on the internet who thinks he is better at casting than Lucasfilm.

  • February 8, 2018 at 6:40 am
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    It’s a wonder we don’t see Harrison as Han an elder man not long before TFA telling the story of his youth to someone.

    • February 8, 2018 at 12:54 pm
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      I liked the idea of the movie starting with Han’s funeral, then Lando stands up and starts to tell a story about Han. Then the movie flashes back and the ride begins.

  • February 8, 2018 at 5:52 pm
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    So many negative opinions from people who haven’t seen the movie yet… I swear some just like to hear the click of their keyboard…

  • February 9, 2018 at 2:54 am
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    Someone please tell me why this is being flagged as spam? I guess in the spirit of Star Wars, am not a robot! So here it goes again, posted for the third time, which is ironic in and of itself.

    Here’s a thought. If we saw Solo: A Star Wars Story first after having crawled out from under a rock for the last forty or so years, and then saw the later movies, would we be so quick to judge? Movies have a younger character that grows up into a much older character all of the time and we don’t think for one minute,”that guy looks nothing like the younger character.” We just accept it. Granted, I know the pickle we’re all in, with Harrison Ford having a charisma that can’t really be matched and a Han that won’t ever be embodied again, or defrosted from carbonite as the case may be, but it might just be that the Han, Alden delivers, is indeed different, but enough the same where one could see this character, develop into Han’s more refined character. I think that will be a sticking point for me, at least; if toward the end, we really start to see aspects of the older Han surface, I might walk away satisfied.

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