Alden Ehrenreich Would Return as Han Solo on Disney Plus; Interested in Building on Who He Becomes at End of ‘Solo’
Alden Ehrenreich is not only on board with returning as Han Solo, but the actor is very interested in Star Wars‘ new inventive ways of storytelling through the Disney Plus streaming platform, indicating a return in some form could be possible.
While promoting his new Peacock streaming series Brave New World, Ehrenreich spoke with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, and spent five minutes or so discussing Solo, the love it has gotten from fans since its release (#MakeSolo2Happen), and what interests him about potentially returning to play Han Solo again.
Horowitz asked Ehrenreich if he had a new perspective and pride in Solo that maybe he didn’t have two years ago to which the actor said they knew the task at hand, but feeling pride in it now is nothing new for him, because he felt it back then.
It doesn’t feel new to me, I felt that then, and we were kind of aware going into it – there were two levels of baggage, one was the publicity of the director change but the other thing is that when you hear there’s going to be a Han Solo movie I think everybody has a version of that movie in their head. And so, my experience with anything like that, is like when you’re seeing a movie that’s adapted from a book. All you’re doing is “that’s not what I thought it was going to be”, so I think, my sense of what happened in it being championed again in whatever way it has, is that people walked away from it and returned to it as what it is, and the thing that I think is the coolest thing about it is the people that are in it. It’s such a cool cast.”
Just when you think it’s impossible to like Ehrenreich more, while describing the joy he feels signing Han Solo toys for kids, he makes it clear he has his finger directly on the pulse of who Star Wars is made for, and what it’s really all about:
And hearing about kids (who love Solo)…that’s who these movies are for, kids and the kids in us and I think that felt great and continues to feel great.”
Now for the important question, to which he doesn’t mince words with his answer. Would Alden Ehrenreich be interested in coming back to play Han Solo again on Disney Plus?
I would. It would have to be the right version of it. What’s cool and kind of free, in a way, is the real fun of (Han Solo), my favorite part of that character, is something that kicks in at the end of the movie. You know, it’s when he becomes that guy at the end, that’s the guy we love. So getting to that, and kind of going from there is interesting so we’ll see. But I think now they’re being so inventive with how they’re using Star Wars and putting out stories in a different way that maybe I could see some out of the box interesting iteration of it somewhere, we’ll see, who knows?”
He absolutely nails it. That is the most interesting part. Getting burned by Beckett, Qi’ra, and Lando left Han Solo jaded and began shaping him into the selfish “look out for number one” scoundrel we eventually meet in A New Hope. Now that the best version of Han Solo has been realized, Ehrenreich appears eager to tell the next chapter in his story, being that guy he becomes at the end of Solo and what path that takes him and his best friend Chewie down.
In my article on the future of Solo yesterday, I opine that Ehrenreich likely wouldn’t be speaking so candidly about a willingness to return, specifically on what platform, without there being some sort of discussions happening. We will see what the future holds, but I have a very good feeling about this. So keep using #MakeSolo2Happen any time you post about Solo and your hopes for more Han Solo adventures, and who knows, maybe we’ll see Alden Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo punch it once again in a galaxy far, far away.
Shout out to J Nolan Ryan for pointing me in the direction of that podcast episode.
John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast
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