It seems at one point, every young actor in Hollywood’s name was in the running to play the young Han Solo in the upcoming anthology prequel to be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. At one point or another, Emory Cohen, Scott Eastwood, Ansel Elgort, Tom Felton, Dave Franco, Colton Haynes, Blake Jenner, Logan Lerman, Rami Malek, Jack Reynor, Chandler Riggs, Nick Robinson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Miles Teller were each rumored to be under consideration. Ultimately, the part went to ‘Hail! Caesar”s Alden Ehrenreich. The film is now in production and is due in theaters May 25, 2018.
As unlikely as some of the actors rumored to in the running would seem for the role, at least… well they’re actors. A rumor emerged a month ago that none other than (former?) One Direction singer Harry Styles was once being eyed. Allegedly, Styles was considered but his busy touring schedule prevented him from accepting.
Metro UK reported that according to an “insider”:
“Harry was one of the early names in contention when the studio looked at Han Solo. Even though he had virtually no acting experience, they saw he had huge star potential and would give the solo project enormous publicity.”
Because if there’s one thing a ‘Star Wars’ movie needs it’s more publicity. Plus casting a pop star with no acting experience is probably the wrong kind of publicity. You may remember that members of *NSYNC actually filmed a (non-speaking) scene for ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’ but when ‘Star Wars’ fans caught wind, the outcry was so loud that their cameo got cut.
Styles is busy promoting his upcoming solo album ‘Harry Styles’. One stop he made was at ‘The Graham Norton Show’. As part of a game, Norton asked Styles about rumors about himself, to which Styles couldn’t verbally respond. Norton and the other guests had to guess whether the rumors were true or false based on his facial expressions.
The last question was of course about whether the Han Solo rumor was true.
If you want to watch the full interview, it is below. If you only care about the Han Solo part, it’s toward the end, at about the 5:30 mark.
So no, Directioners, sorry Harry Styles was never asked about playing Han Solo.
For his part, he will be making his acting debut in the upcoming Christopher Nolan film ‘Dunkirk’ which also stars Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Kenneth Branagh.
As for how Ehrenreich will do as ‘Han Solo’, we just have to wait until May 25, 2018 to see.
I don’t know why I’m even asking but… how do you think Harry Styles would have done in the role?
