Taron Egerton almost played Han Solo in the Star Wars prequel movie

In a recent interview, actor Taron Egerton (Rocketman, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) revealed that he almost played young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. But, as Egerton told the Happy, sad, confused podcast, he pulled out of the running before the role was cast.

“I’ll be honest: I rode the Falcon. I was with Chewie,” Egerton said (via Weekly entertainment). “I was in full costume…there was another round [of auditions] which I decided not to do. And it’s far enough in the past now that I feel like I can say that. I hope no one feels annoyed that I said it.”

The role instead went to Alden Ehrenreich, although the 2018 film failed to win over audiences. The film was such a disappointing performer that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said in an interview earlier this year that internally her lesson was that the Star Wars franchise would no longer cast new actors as classic characters. . However, as franchise enthusiasts will no doubt recall, audiences responded favorably to Ehrenreich’s Han Solo, Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian, and elsewhere with Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Egerton wasn’t the only Solo associate who ended up parting ways with the project. The film also memorably publicly changed directors halfway through development. Jump Street’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller parted ways with Lucasfilm over creative differences. In another interview in February also with the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, the couple discussed moving on and that there’s no bad blood.

Elsewhere in the franchise, Disney+ released the first full trailer for Andor on August 1. The series will hit the streaming service with a three-episode premiere on September 21, with the rest of the episodes airing weekly until November 23.