Solo (SPOILERS)

[Rob]

Sure, but they're mega hits targeted at a demographic that's like 13 to 21.

The Star Wars demo is more like 5 to 50.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

That demo speaks with big money at the box office.

[Phrubruh]

What is the demographics for Avatar since Disney is building Avatarland at Animal Kingdom?

[Jeff]

At first, I was in the "only Harrison Ford = Han Solo" camp.  Then I remembered that Harrison Ford = Han Solo is dead.  The only way for me to get new Han Solo in Star Wars movies is with a new Han Solo.  So... it is what it is.

If they cast the right guy, it'll probably all work out fine.  I'm going to put some faith into Kathleen Kennedy and the LFL people.  They found a batch of awesome people for Episode 7.  Hopefully they can do that here too.  Yes, I realize that recasting an icon like Han Solo is very different from finding a newbie like Daisy Ridley.  I just think they can do it.  I like the people involved in this movie - LFL, the directors, etc.  I have faith it's going to work out.

I'm sure recasting James Bond the first time freaked out all the folks at JamesBondDefender.com back in the day.  They were all like, "Sean Connery = James Bond"!  But they recast him and life moved on.  I guess at the end of the day, I'm fine with recasting Han Solo because no matter what happens, we'll always have Harrison Ford Han Solo.  If you go see the new movie and it sucks, you can go home watch 4/5/6/7 and spend your time on message boards telling everyone why 4/5/6/7 is the "REAL" Han Solo (taking the occasional breaks to chase kids off your front lawn, of course).

Whether we like it or not, it's going to happen.  What will be really interesting to see is what happens next....  if the "young Han Solo" movie(s) do well enough...  do they take it a step further?  Does it eventually evolve into "Young Han Solo" anchoring the cast of an Episode 4 reboot?   

I mean, just think about it:  Young Han Solo #1 = 2018.  YHS#2 = 2021.  YHS#3 = 2024.   Then...  ANH 2.0 = 2027 (50th anniversary?!?)   

[P-Siddy]

I think there'll be some "Disney raped my childhood" rants (I think there already are after what they did to the EU/Legends).

[Rob]

That demo speaks with big money at the box office.

We're talking about Star wars, not Divergent.  I'm 35 and saw TFA 6 times.  You guys probably saw it more than I did.  Turn Han Solo into a movie for tweens and it's not going to do as well as it should.

[Matt_Fury]

I think there'll be some "Disney raped my childhood" rants (I think there already are after what they did to the EU/Legends).

In regards to EU...they pretty much just made my library irrelevant! 

[Phrubruh]

I'm sure recasting James Bond the first time freaked out all the folks at JamesBondDefender.com back in the day.  They were all like, "Sean Connery = James Bond"!  But they recast him and life moved on.  I guess at the end of the day, I'm fine with recasting Han Solo because no matter what happens, we'll always have Harrison Ford Han Solo. 

Well, they did recast James Bond with George Lazabey which turned out to be a disaster. The producers had to get Connery back.

[Jeff]

I'm sure recasting James Bond the first time freaked out all the folks at JamesBondDefender.com back in the day.  They were all like, "Sean Connery = James Bond"!  But they recast him and life moved on.  I guess at the end of the day, I'm fine with recasting Han Solo because no matter what happens, we'll always have Harrison Ford Han Solo.

Well, they did recast James Bond with George Lazabey which turned out to be a disaster. The producers had to get Connery back.

Yep, an epic disaster, which is why they never tried it again and Sean Connery is still James Bond today...   

Recasting Han Solo is going to have bumps and bruises too.  Like Steve pointed out, a certain segment is going to hate the idea right off the bat.  Another segment of fans is going to love it no matter what.  Right now, I still have faith that the LFL crew isn't going to "Lazenby" Han Solo.  That could end up being horribly misplaced faith, but for now that's all I've got.



In other news, sounds like Chewbacca is confirmed for the movie. 

I wonder if they are going to let Joonas Suotamo (who was Chewbacca in a number of TFA scenes) continue on as Chewbacca?

[EdSolo]

I'm sure recasting James Bond the first time freaked out all the folks at JamesBondDefender.com back in the day.  They were all like, "Sean Connery = James Bond"!  But they recast him and life moved on.  I guess at the end of the day, I'm fine with recasting Han Solo because no matter what happens, we'll always have Harrison Ford Han Solo. 

Well, they did recast James Bond with George Lazabey which turned out to be a disaster. The producers had to get Connery back.

Quite a different situation here.  Connery had starred in five consecutive Bond movies in a short time and then they changed the actor for one film.  On Her Majesty's Secret Service is easily a better movie than Connery's return in Diamonds are Forever.  In this situation, there is no way you can have Ford star as a young Han Solo.  It would be like trying to get Connery back to replace Craig.

[Jesse James]

I will say what I said about TFA when new movies were announced.  I'll give them a chance but if they suck I will just ignore them.  To me it's that easy.  Tpm sucked but I didn't let it "ruin my childhood".  OT Han will not evaporate into nothingness if Disney cranks out a "Han-ger Games" (see what I did there?) movie about Han Solo.

Personally I don't think they'd do that.  At worst I think they'd just not get a good actor able to sort of mimic Fords style, kinda the opposite of McGregor's OWK.  I felt he was a bright spot in the PT.  It's doable then.  I think the story will be nice, it just boils down to gettin someone who can be, at least a little, like Ford played Han.  I'm not panicked over that I guess.

[Darby]

I agree on the Ewan McGregor point. Han Solo is all near and dear to us and Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford, so the idea of recasting him seems heresy, but there's precedent for it succeeding. Kathleen Kennedy knows what she's doing and they'll avoid a bland guy who's in every movie and hire someone with weight and talent, like McGregor. I don't worry about a reduction in the character or the quality of the film because it's a younger version of him. This isn't Anakin in TPM we're talking about. Lawrence Kasdan is writing the movie. Personally I don't have a want or need for these sorts of spin off movies, but obviously this is the future. Just my two cents I think they should have held off on the spin offs until after the trilogy, due to a splintering in focus that I think is playing out somewhat with Rogue One - the hype will ramp up real quick after TFA drops on DVD, but there hasn't been any general public media awareness of the movie to this point. At this some juncture for TFA, we had the first teaser and the Celebration trailer was right around the corner. I think there is some going to be some confusion for audiences in terms of where's Rey (...) and wow this is super dark. I could be way off on that and people go see SW movies no matter what, but I think it's playing into the radio silence. Ideally you would have dropped some kind of teaser with TFA to get people thinking that Step 2 is this little side street into the past.

[Jesse James]

It could be really awesome is all I'm saying...  And it could suck...  and it could be somewhere in between.

Don't stress about it.  It's less fun.

[Nicklab]

Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort?  Really?  Is early Han a Dejarik chess nerd?  Not overly excited about any of these, but Jack Reynor kind of has that look...

Jack was just on the Today show and got asked about the possibility of being cast in the Han Solo movie.  Predictably, he couldn't say anything about being cast. But he was extremely complimentary of the directors, saying that they're the perfect guys to direct this film.

[Nicklab]

According to this Deadline article there appears to be a frontrunner for the role of Han Solo.  That being Alden Ehrenreich, who got some really positive reviews for his role in the recent Coen brothers film, Hail Caesar!.