The Star Wars franchise is one that’s been passed down across multiple generations, resulting in a very strong love for George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. The fandom has been treated to a steady supply of content since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, including the sequel trilogy, TV shows, and a few standalone movies. Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story was in the latter category, although it ended up being the franchise’s first box office failure. But would Solo star Alden Ahrenreich return to Star Wars? Here’s the latest from the 33 year-old actor.
Actor Alden Ehrenreich had some very big shoes to fill playing the title character of Solo, and taking the mantle from Harrison Ford’s truly iconic performances throughout four films. There was some backlash before a frame from the movie was even released, and the movie’s box office performance seemingly inspired Lucasfilm to throw standalone movies out of the picture for a few years. Ehrenreich was recently asked by IndieWire if he’d still be interested in playing Han again after the fallout of Ron Howard’s Star Wars prequel, saying:
The story that I did, I really got to be Han Solo at the end. That’s kind of the arc of the story, which I thought was well done. That’s the fun part. That’s the guy that’s the most fun to be. I’d be very happy to, but who knows.
Some points were made. The ending of Solo: A Star Wars Story seemed to be setting up a burgeoning franchise, and planted a few narrative seeds for a sequel. Since Alden Ahrenreich was playing the smuggler in an origin story, he only got to be the Han we know and love at the very end of the film. And as such, he’d be down for another go in the beloved space opera.
Alden Ehrenreich’s comments about possibly playing Han again is sure to turn the heads of Star Wars fans. While Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to perform at the box office, the online chatter of fans hoping to see more of the franchise has steadily gotten louder over the years. This is partly due to the quality of other Star Wars movies, and Solo’s cliffhanger ending. After all, when else are we going to get another appearance by Maul in live-action?
Solo: A Star Wars Story seemed to have the odds against it from early on, starting with backlash about another actor taking on the role from Harrison Ford. Then there was trouble during production, where original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired and removed from the set. Ron Howard stepped in to complete the project, but it failed to deliver at the box office.
Still, the story of Solo set up a few narrative threads to pull from in the now-cancelled sequel. The final moments saw Han acquiring the Millenium Falcon from Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), and setting off to Tatooine with Chewbacca to make a deal with Jabba the Hutt. And as previously mentioned, the twist ending revealed that Maul was the leader of Crimson Dawn, and he ordered Emilia Clake’s Qi’ra to join him on Dathomir. Unfortunately it’s unclear if we’ll ever see these plot points pay off.
Star Wars’ future in the movies continues to be a mystery, although there are a few projects in the early stages of development. Instead fans will be given more live-action content on Disney+ like Ahsoka and The Mandalorian Season 3. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
