Solo [Official Info] Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo) in Solo

[When someone talked about a Han Solo trilogy]

"Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo 4 h
@bryanbleano No one's said anything about a trilogy. Stop panicking at what the Internet baits you to click."

"Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo 28 de jul
@breaksgrifter Who said anything about a tril- OH RIGHT THE INTERNET."

"Pablo Hidalgo ‏@pablohidalgo 29 de jul
@alexjmarty I'd caution about what you read online and what it may mean for future content."

 

If Han Solo movie is set 5 years before ANH then Alden is a recasting of Han Solo not a guy playing a younger version cause we all know the younger version was Harrison Ford in 1977....

 

Based on...what, exactly?

I will forever be skeptical of fan concerns about casting because of the Heath Ledger as Joker example. Fans aren't collectively hired as casting directors for a reason. They suck at it.

 

This happens time and time and time again and nobody seems to ever learn from it.

"Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man? That washed up drug addict?"
Iron Man rises from C-List to A-List almost overnight, almost entirely due to Downey Jr's. performance.

"Heath Ledger?? The Joker?? Yeah, right, okay."
Wins an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, quickly and enduringly becomes the most iconic incarnation of the character.

"Ben Affleck? As Batman? Christian Bale must be rolling over in his future grave."
His performance is perhaps the best reviewed part of the poorly reviewed movie, garnering near unanimous approval.

And perhaps the most relevant to the current discussion:
"How could they possibly recast the original Star Trek characters? How are we supposed to buy them as slightly younger versions of the ones we know and love? Shatner and Nimoy are Kirk and Spock, and that's that."
The new cast is consistently regarded as the single best thing about the new movies, even amongst their harshest critics.

 

Amen. A debate-ender, really.

 

None of those examples you gave are recasts within the same canon/timeline. Not only does this guy have to be good (which I'm sure he will), but we also have to buy him being the same person played by someone else a few years later. That'll be tough, I'm eager to see this guy in costume.

 

Star Trek is an alt timeline but that doesn't "excuse" some characters looking like completely different people. Some of them would have been born before the timeline split. And yet, when both Spocks are on screen together in the first film, you buy it. When Spock takes out a photograph of the original cast in Beyond, you accept they're the same people.

 

That's splitting hairs. The point is that after lots of teeth-gnashing, fans will generally accept recasts if the actors are great and capture the spirit of their respective characters.

And in any event, recasts within the same timelines and canon have been successful before as well. Game of Thrones is a famous example of this, where nearly every single recast has been ultimately viewed as a positive thing based on the strength of the new actor (The Mountain, Tommen, Myrcella, Daario, etc).

 

It's all about suspending disbelief. I have absolutely no doubt that there are people already who are so affronted by the idea of another actor playing Han that they will sit in the theatre with arms folded with the intention only of taking mental notes about how many ways they can describe what was terrible about it.

But, ultimately these films do involve suspensions of disbelief that range from trivial to significant, and how jarring they are comes down to how much of a pass we give the film. It's the film I'm least excited by on the grounds that I want the universe widened, not the further adventures of people we already know. But my hopes for the film are; Lawrence Kasdan writes a great, witty script, and Alden captures the spirit of the character.

 

Also do I think that the majority of the GA, who don't knitpick things to death, will care about Alden's physical appearance if he's good in the role and captures the spirit of Han. No, I don't and I have plenty of past precedent to back that notion up.

 

Dumbledore in Harry Potter was recast midway through the series and nobody battered an eyelid.

 

The original actor died after COS.

 

I know, but the recast was a major success.

 

Eh. He had his moments but the original was better imo.

 

HARRY DID YE PUT YA NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH???!?!??!!!??!??!!

 

Honestly having read the books, Dumbledore 2.0 (aka Michael Gambon) fit the role much better imo. Sir Richard Harris (the first guy) was good, but he played the role as too much of an "old man."

 

I think Michael Gambon was miscast, misdirected and uninterested. Dumbledore should be grandfatherly but mischievous and with a steel core; Gambon played him as distant and aggressive albeit ultimately good.

I don't think Harris was particularly good either. Really, McKellan's Gandalf is closer in character to Dumbledore than to Gandalf, but I think Stephen Fry would have made a good Dumbledore

 

Harris fit the role better in the first two films, because they were more like kids movies. I liked Gambon in 3, 6 and 7 - but honestly, in 4 and 5 he made Dumbledore look like a huge d*ck. Sure Dumbledore was a tough guy alright, but he was always a kind man in the books. They made Gambon act more soft and kind in 6 and 7 though, possibly because of backlash.

 

But that's a writing issue, not a casting one.

 

^In that case, I could counter-argument by saying that Harris "too kind"-acting in 1 and 2 was a writing issue aswell. Seriously, you have to look at the actors.

Anyway, you can't really compare Dumbledore's recast with Han Solo.

 

I really didn't want Obi-Wan to be recast, especially with some guy out of Trainspotting. I've already been through the seven stages of grief for recasting in Star Wars, and I reached "acceptance" circa 1998.

 

Jason Ward ‏@MakingStarWars 15 min
Casting for young Lando in the young Han Solo: A Star Wars Story film is underway? #StarWars #HanSolo

http://makingstarwars.net/2016/08/casting-for-young-lando-in-the-young-han-solo-a-star-wars-story-film-is-underway/

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/.../?hootPostID=ddb9f58738945433e30fad8bd15d7124

 

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/alden-ehrenreich-1#_