Your new Han Solo vs. the original Han Solo: fight!

There can be only two

By Bryan Bishop
on May 6, 2016 12:30 pm
@bcbishop

May the 4th may have ended up relatively quiet on the news front, but the world of Star Wars made up for it last night, when reports first surfaced that actor Alden Ehrenreich was in final negotiations to play young Han Solo for the standalone film due in 2018. The actor has been percolating throughout Hollywood over the past few years, most recently standing out amongst a cast of acting giants in the Coen Brothers' Hail, Caesar!

Given the track record of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street), there's every reason to believe they — and Disney — have made the right call. But let's get real: Han Solo is as iconic as they come. To pull this role off, Ehrenreich will not only need to live up to the charm and charisma that Harrison Ford displayed in the original three films, but he'll also have to ground the character for his eventual (spoiler alert!) tragic fate in The Force Awakens.

So let's put this to the test the best way we know how: by checking out pictures of the two actors to see how much they look like each other.

Hint: Use the 's' and 'd' keys to navigate

Harrison Ford on the set of The Empire Strikes Back suffers no fools.
Alden Ehrenreich, seen here in Hail, Caesar!, is not intimidated.
"What's this?" young Harrison Ford asks. "They cast an actor to play even younger me?"
"Yes they did," Ralph Fiennes tells Ehrenreich, because I'm pretending Fiennes is some sort of inter-movie time traveller.
Okay, okay, so we saw Ehrenreich be charming and hilarious in the last Coen brothers movie. But the true test of a young Han Solo is how he looks standing with a pair of cohorts.
You mean like in this still from Beautiful Creatures? Slap on a black vest and you're halfway there!
Okay, fine. But what about that classic Solo romantic charm?
The smolder. Feel it.
I get your point. Alden Ehrenreich seems like a pretty strong choice. But Han Solo wasn't just all about lookin' cool and being charming with the space ladies. There was a world-weariness to him as well. Just check out that hangdog stare!
Well played.
This doesn't really have anything to do with the comparison. I'm just including it because it's amazing. But maybe, just maybe, they're excited about the new casting, too.