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Alden Ehrenreich Is The New Han Solo: Here’s What You Need To Know

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:30 PST, Jul 21, 2016

Alden Ehrenreich is officially the new Han Solo. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Alden Ehrenreich made his first official Star Wars appearance in London.

Ehrenreich is best known for his roles on Hail, Caesar! and Blue Jasmine. The actor made an appearance at the Star Wars Celebration Europe to promote the upcoming movie, with the working title Untitled Star Wars Han Solo Anthology Film, which will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Shooting for the film will start early next year in the United Kingdom, and it has been revealed that many of the same crew working on Rogue One will also work on this film. The Han Solo film starring Alden Ehrenreich will focus on how he came to be the smuggler whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley.

The role was hotly contested among three thousand actors, and Alden Ehrenreich only won the role after multiple auditions spanning over six months. Alden was supposedly the first actor to audition from the group of thousands, dressing up as Solo and screen testing with Chewbacca inside the Millennium Falcon.

Alden Ehrenreich spoke on the experience of stepping inside the Millennium Falcon for the first time.

“There’s something about it that felt so exciting that I think that was more exciting than it felt nerve-wracking. Being on the Falcon after having seen it for so long, you just kind of immediately go, alright, alright, yeah, cool.”

According to CNN, Alden Ehrenreich attributes his success to Steven Spielberg discovering him at a bat mitzvah.

When he was just 14-years-old, Alden was spotted in a video a Jewish friend asked him to do which was later played at the friend’s bat mitzvah, which happened to be seen by none other than Steven Spielberg.

Alden Ehrenreich spoke on the video that was spotted by Spielberg, saying that they didn’t even follow a script in the video: they simply filmed whatever they felt like doing and whatever they thought would make them laugh.

“I’m this 14-year-old, skinny little kid with long hair. I break into her house, try on her clothes and make up a song. All of this is just us literally taking a camera and going like, ‘Okay, ha ha, do this.'”

Ehrenreich also admits to being a fan of old movies, and especially enjoyed being a part of the Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! The film, set in 1950s Hollywood, didn’t feature any special effects, the fact of which did not bother Ehrenreich at all as he grew up watching old movies and always dreamed of being a part of one. In particular, Ehrenreich enjoyed filming on a set that looks like it came directly from the 1950s.

The new Han Solo has already worked with his share of Hollywood legends, having made his film debut in 2009 in Francis Ford Coppola’s independent film, Tetro. Alden Ehrenreich worked with the director once again in 2011’s Twixt, and then in 2013, Ehrenreich starred as Cate Blanchett’s stepson in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine. His heartthrob status for his role as Ethan Wate in the 2013 film adaptation of the young adult novel Beautiful Creatures has meant that Ehrenreich has already drawn some comparisons to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Alden Ehrenreich spoke on how he sees his craft.

“For me, the drive is storytelling. To be a part of an art that tells a story and to be a catalyst, a color in that, is very exciting.”

According to Just Jared Jr., Alden Ehrenreich and Lily Collins star together in the upcoming period film Rules Don’t Apply.

The period film is set in 1958 and stars Ehrenreich as Frank Forbes, the driver for small town beauty queen and devout Baptist virgin Marla Mabrey who is under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes. The interaction between them puts their religious convictions to the test and it also defies Howard Hughes’ first rule: no employee is allowed to have any relationship whatsoever with an actress.

[Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP]

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