In a sprawling Vanity Fair piece about the forthcoming Obi Wan Kenobi series (Disney +, 5.27), Anthony Breznican devotes a paragraph to the Solo calamity of 2018:
“Solo explored Han Solo’s younger years, with Alden Ehrenreich taking on the role of the smuggler originated by Harrison Ford. The film has its admirers, but it made less at the box office than any other live-action Star Wars movie. Solo’s swagger may be too singular for another actor to replicate.
“‘There should be moments along the way when you learn things,’ says Kennedy. ‘Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.’
“Kennedy would’ve been fine if she’d cast Ansel Elgort. Elgort was an obvious choice to everyone in the galaxy except Kennedy and Steven Spielberg.
Instead she chose Alden Ehrenreich, a too-short, charisma-challenged, completely miscast actor who had to be professionally coached in a seemingly desperate effort to capture the insouciant vibe and commanding physicality of young Ford.
Posted on 4.17.18: “Alden Ehrenreich was almost certainly chosen to play the rogue-ish Han Solo by producer Kathy Kennedy because she felt obliged to kiss the ring of her longtime boss Steven Spielberg.
“The famed director discovered Ehrenreich in 2003, when the 28-year-old actor was 14, after seeing him in a Bat Mitzvah video at a party. Spielberg’s endorsement eventually led to Ehrenreich getting an agent, landing gigs on TV series like Supernatural and CSI, and being cast as Vincent Gallo‘s younger brother in Francis Coppola‘s Tetro (’09).
“So when you’re watching Solo a few weeks hence and asking yourself how the producers could have possibly decided that the too-short, beady-eyed Ehrenreich could fill Harrison Ford‘s shoes in a way that audiences would totally accept (instead of hiring Baby Driver‘s Ansel Elgort, the obvious choice), remember that Aldenreich was primarily chosen as a deferential gesture to big bossman Beardo.”