15 Strangest Movie Casting Rumours That Thankfully Never Happened

14. Christopher Walken As Han Solo

It's hard to imagine Han Solo, the rakishly handsome breakout character of the original Star Wars trilogy, being played by anyone other than Harrison Ford. It's common knowledge that a handful of future superstars read for the role, including Kurt Russell (who made Escape From New York instead) and a pre-Rocky Sly Stallone! The most eye catching name on the list, though, is Christopher Walken. The New Yorker was an unknown young actor at the time (he wouldn't make his breakthrough with The Deer Hunter until 1978) and was overlooked for the role. It's a good thing too - Lucas' dialogue is often criticised as being stilted, so imagine it with Walken's trademark weird speech patterns and laizes-faire approach to punctuation. "The Millennium... Falcon... made the Kessel Run in twelve par-secs... that fast enough for YOU, old MAN?" Later in his career Walken admitted he was "terrible" at the audition and wasn't even sure what the part was, confessing that he didn't even know the name of Lucas' space epic at the time. We should be thankful he didn't make too much of an effort; Harrison Ford's energy and charisma helped elevate Star Wars to classic status, it would have been a very different movie without him.