5. Al Pacino Reportedly Turned Down Han Solo
If Christopher Walken is hard to imagine as Han Solo, then Al Pacino, who was also apparently asked to take on the key role is downright improbable, but that didn't seem to phase George Lucas and co, who offered him Solo anyway. It was only ever rumoured that Pacino had turned the role down, but he finally admitted that he had indeed at An Evening With Pacino in London in 2013, where he also revealed the reason behind his snub. In a similar move to Sean Connery, who turned down the Lord Of The Rings because he didn't really get the mumbo-jumbo involved, Pacino turned down the role because he couldn't get on board with something that made no sense to him:
"It was mine for the taking but I didnt understand the script."
The same source of that story (
The Telegraph) added Bill Murray and Chevy Chase to the list of potential Han Solos, and stated that Pacino also admitted in the talk in London that he was offered both Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen's leading roles in Apocalypse Now and Richard Gere's role in Pretty Woman. Presumably he understood those better, and turned them down for other reasons, though his judgement is somewhat impaired by the fact that he called the Godfather "a long, awful, tiring story".