Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. When enraged Star Wars fans would ask me why I wasn't up in arms when Disney bought Lucasfilm and were in the process of making Episodes 7-9 I responded with "They can't possibly make any worse movies than what Lucas gave us." I've been a big optimist when it comes to everything they're doing so far. Well, almost everything.
I can't wrap my head around the decision to do The Young Han Solo Chronicles. I don't see in what universe that doesn't fall into the same trap that the prequels did, but then they had to go and hire Phil Lord and Chris Miller and now the optimist in me has come back again. These guys are the kings of taking what seems like a bad idea and making it smart and awesome. They did it with the Lego Movie and the Jump Street films and I hope they still have enough magic left to make the Young Han Solo spin-off movie amazing.
With the EU out the window that at least frees them up to go in whatever direction they want for Han's origin. I would have thought making him a kid would have cut some of the difficulty of matching Harrison Ford's special blend of charm and dickishness and you can go in a Stand By Me meets Calvin and Hobbes kinda direction with him and Chewie, but apparently not.
Evidence of this has come out recently thanks to a story at THR. It seems every young actor between the ages of 16 and 30 has auditioned for the part. A staggering 2500 auditions have been held so far.
Recognizable names like Miles Teller, Dave Franco (who worked with Lord & Miller very well on the Jump Streets), Nick Robinson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Walking Dead's Chandler Riggs, Rami Malek, Logan Lerman, Ansel Elgort and even Draco Malfoy himself, Tom Felton have all been considered.
That leaves a whole lot of relative unknowns who've read as well. My assumption is we'll see someone fresh and new step into Solo's boots, but who knows?
The movie is reportedly gearing up for a January 2017 shoot to make its May 2018 release date.
Thoughts?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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