INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Dave Franco Talks Auditioning For Han Solo?, ?Alden Ehrenreich Now Frontrunner

By Stephen Jordan
Published on: 11:25 PST, Apr 17, 2016

Now You See Me 2 star Dave Franco was one of the many young actors who auditioned for the role of young Han Solo in the rebel pilot’s solo prequel film in the Star Wars universe. Speaking about the audition with MTV’s Josh Horowitz, Franco described the one-time audition as a good one, but the situation certainly became larger than life once everyone else heard the news.

“Everyone’s coming up and being like, ‘Dude, what’s going on?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know. You know as much as me,'” Franco tells Horowitz, while on a promotional tour for Now You See Me 2. “I don’t want to underplay it, like, I’m very flattered to have been or to be whatever, wherever they are in the conversation, but, like, it is what it is.”

Dave Franco is just one of nearly 2,500 actors in Hollywood who have auditioned for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who will be directing the Han Solo anthology film. The Star Wars spin-off will focus on the adventures of a young Han Solo, (probably between the age of 19 and 22). Theoretically, it should take place about 15 years before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Franco certainly makes it clear that he was not trying to pull off a perfect Harrison Ford impression while in the audition room.

“I’m not good with impressions,” Franco said. “I think that’s the reason it’s so hard to cast this role, too. It’s like, do they want to like perfectly embody who Harrison Ford is, or do they want to go a completely different route? Do they want someone to look really similar him? So, I don’t know, I think they’re struggling with that, maybe.”

The studio may not be struggling all that much, as reports claim that Hail, Ceasar! actor Alden Ehrenreich is the frontrunner for the young Han Solo role. Ehrenreich, 26, was going up against Taron Egerton and Jack Reynor as the studio was getting closer to their number one pick. But now, it looks as if young Alden may currently be at the top of the list. Though no official comments have been released by Disney.

Taron Egerton (Kingsman, Eddie the Eagle) is going to be filming Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Robin Hood: Origins this year. While Jack Reynor (Transformers: Age of Extinction) has just finished filming HHhH with Rosamund Pike and the Andy Serkis version of Jungle Book.

The Star Wars/Han Solo anthology film is not the only project with an iconic character on the horizon for Alden Ehrenreich. The Warren Beatty, yet-to-be-titled Howard Hughes project currently has Ehrenreich as the lead, and that will be released in the fall of 2016.

Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, as well as The Force Awakens) has already made it clear that this Han Solo anthology film will not be the typical origin story in which we start with his birth and watch him grow up.

Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens up ahead.

Now that Han Solo is dead, this prequel anthology movie could be the last time the character appears on the big screen. Whether it’s Alden Ehrenreich, Taron Egerton or Jack Reynor, whoever is chosen to play the role is going to have some very big shoes to fill. But even the studio understands that, given the thousands of actors they have looked at for the role of Han Solo. If they don’t get this one right, it’s going to be a very devastating blow to Star Wars fans.

The Han Solo prequel, directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord, is scheduled for a May 25, 2018 release date.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]

Share this article: Dave Franco Talks Auditioning For Han Solo?, ?Alden Ehrenreich Now Frontrunner
star wars the force awakens
More from Inquisitr