20 Things You Didn't Know About Solo: A Star Wars Story
Revisiting the only box office bomb in Star Wars history.
It feels a little odd to call any Star Wars movie a cult gem, but that's kinda what Solo: A Star Wars Story actually is.
Undeniably one of the most divisively received Star Wars films to date, Solo was released in May 2018 to a relatively apathetic fanbase still reeling from the fallout of The Last Jedi, and who didn't necessarily feel that Han Solo needed his own origin story.
The film's behind-the-scenes troubles are of course well-known at this point, enough that the final product turning out as well as it did frankly seems like a miracle, its brutal box office underperformance notwithstanding.
Though Solo certainly has its passionate defenders and cheerleaders, it's surely the least-discussed live-action Star Wars movie to date, enough that you probably don't know nearly enough about its fascinating production - beyond the obvious controversies, that is.
Solo is, for all of its troubles and flaws, a film clearly made with a lot of love by a cast and crew of talented artists, and to that end there are tons of intriguing stories about how it all came together, for better and worse...
20. Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Miles Teller, Rami Malek & Many More Were Considered For Han
It won't surprise anyone to learn that original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller undertook an extensive manhunt to find an actor to play the young Han Solo.
After all, given Harrison Ford's absolutely singular presence in the role, it required an actor of equal charm and gravitas to do Han true justice.
And so the directors auditioned more than 3,000 actors for the part, with some of the more prominent names including Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Miles Teller, Rami Malek, Dave Franco, Tom Felton, Logan Lerman, Jack Reynor, Charlie Cox, Ansel Elgort, Scott Eastwood, Chris Pratt, and Taron Egerton.
The shortlist reportedly got down to Reynor, Egerton, and Alden Ehrenreich, with Ehrenreich ultimately winning the part.
Curiously, though, Lord and Miller claimed that Ehrenreich was the very first actor they ever auditioned for Han, and that nobody else they saw made quite the same impression.
The rest, as they say, is history.