Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo charged with the job of bringing a young Han Solo to our screens, appear to have made their choice of the man to fill the role for the stand-alone film. After a long casting process, Hail, Caesar!'s Alden Ehrenreich has clinched it.
Now, we'd caution at this point that it's one of those "sources tell us" stories in the New York Post and hasn't (at time of writing this) been officially confirmed by Disney or Lucasfilm. So we're obliged to fire up the old rumour klaxon for what will probably be the last time in this particular case.
Ehrenreich, who is reportedly in the final stages of hammering out his deal to play the young rogue made iconic by Harrison Ford, won the role over the likes of Jack Reynor, Ansel Elgort and thousands of unknowns who tried out for it.
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens co-writer Lawrence Kasdan working on the script alongside son Jon, story details are somewhat naturally being kept locked in the Falcon's smuggling hideout. But the elder Kasdan has said it won't be a traditional origin story for the character. “It will not be, ‘Here’s where he was born and this is how he was raised.’ I think what it will be is, ‘What was he like 10 years earlier?’... But Akira Kurosawa once said the heroes are the ones that are still changing and the villains are locked and petrified into what they are.” And would anyone have expected a film by Lord and Miller to fall into typical patterns?
It'll be a while before this one starts shooting, and it's not due for release until May 25, 2018, but there has also been talk that this younger take on Solo might pop up for a cameo in Gareth Edwards' Rogue One (which is at the editing stage, but could drop him in via additional shooting.) Ehrenreich has a role in war drama The Yellow Birds and will be seen in Warren Beatty's as-yet-untitled new Howard Hughes film. And while you wait for the final confirmation, why not read our briefing on Rogue One right here?