The hottest acting gig in the galaxy at the moment is the job to play the young Han Solo in the planned prequel film. Literally thousands of potential choices have been considered, and the word is currently that Lucasfilm has narrowed down the pool of contenders to about a dozen. One of those reportedly on the short list is Jack Reynor.
While the Transformers: Age of Extinction actor would not confirm to MTV that he was in any way involved in the project, because that’s how the game is played, he did talk a little bit about what it would (theoretically) be like to play that role, and the difficulties that come with it. These are, after all, some of the biggest shoes to fill in all of Hollywood.
We’re talking about Harrison Ford. He’s no chump. You can’t do an imitation. You can’t try and just emulate what that is. It’s got to be something new. It’s also got to be something that the audience is going to respond to.
It’s a double-edged sword to be sure. On the one hand, the performance has to be believable as an early version of the character that we know and love. We know that the audience responds to Han Solo as he has been portrayed in the past. It can’t be so different that the audience has trouble believing that the two characters are actually the same person. At the same time, simply doing your best Harrison Ford impression is only going to get you so far.
Jack Reynor appears to be on the right track, however. He says that it’s got to be something new, and for the most part, that seems to be the way the role is being set up. Lawrence Kasdan, who is working on the screenplay of the film, has said that this story will be set earlier in Han Solo’s life, before he became the cynical starship pilot we meet in the first film. That should give an actor some room to breathe as far as doing something new rather than simply trying to emulate Harrison Ford.
Even Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford, has said that his advice to any actor taking up the role would be to "make it your own." As much as we all love Han Solo the fact is that if an actor tried to imitate Harrison Ford as Han Solo, it’s just going to come across as a guy doing a Harrison Ford impression, not playing the role itself. No audience is going to respond to that.
Jack Reynor seems to have a good handle on how to play the part properly. Whether he’ll have the opportunity to do so is anybody’s guess at this point. He’s got strong competition from a number of other actors. With the movie not planned for released until 2018, it could still be some time before we know who will be the next Han Solo.
