Variety has sources saying that Woody Harrelson is in the early stages of negotiation to play the mentor of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) in the next standalone Star Wars movie.
There’s no more information than that available, but we do know that Donald Glover will be playing Lando Calrissian and Emilia Clarke will be the love interest. My question is: will Harrelson’s mentor teach smuggling or thieving, since the new Star Wars canon got rid of the story that Han once attended the Imperial Academy? Both the old and new canon do have him being orphaned at a young age and taking up thieving.
Harrelson could be the Space Fagin to Ehrehreich’s space Oliver Twist. That would be one direction to take, I guess.
There’s also this from The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit, saying that Christian Bale was the name being bandied about before Harrelson:
True that Disney & Lucasfilm wanted someone big for HAN SOLO…before Woody Harrelson, CHRISTIAN BALE was the other big name in the mix.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) January 3, 2017
The Han Solo film is due in 2018 from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
