Continuing in the grand tradition of Jewish Han Solo’s, Alden Ehrenreich was officially introduced over the weekend as the actor who will play the younger version of the greatest bounty hunter in the universe. Though the casting for the unnamed Han Solo Star Wars film was announced in May, it was finally confirmed yesterday at the Future Filmmakers Panel, where Ehrenreich, The Force Awakens star John Boyega, and Star Wars VIII director Rian Johnson were all panelists.
Before Ehrenreich came onstage, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directing duo (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) of the upcoming film, provided some background.
“This was the hardest casting challenge of all time,” said Miller. “We saw over 3,000 people—”
“Turns out,” Lord interjected, “that that was a total waste of money because the person who got the part was the first person to audition.”
Ehrenreich then took the stage, and the light saber-wielding crowd went wild.
Ehrenreich, who was discovered by Steven Spielberg at a bar mitzvah party, is most familiar to audiences from his role as singing cowboy Hobie Doyle in the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar! For Ehrenreich, the casting represents another step in his ludicrously fastrise to fame. The Han Solo Star Wars feature movie will come out in 2018, and will presumably make enough money fund a small island nation for three years. In the meantime, buckle up for Rogue One.
Jesse Bernstein is a former Intern at Tablet.
