Star Wars Prequel-Era Nearly Cast a Surprising Actor for Han Solo

Long before Solo: A Star Wars Story hit cinema screens back in 2018, George Lucas himself was already planning on including Han Solo in the Prequel era– and a very well-known Star Wars actor was in the running to portray him.

Regardless of my thoughts on the film as a whole, I thought Alden Ehrenreich did a pretty good job of portraying Han in Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Harrison Ford is a tough act to follow, but I think Ehrenreich came as close to anyone else has in recent years (although saying that, Mark Hamill’s impression of Ford is borderline perfect).

Turns out that both George Lucas and Dave Filoni toyed with the idea of including Han in one of the Star Wars Prequel trilogy’s spin-off shows, and they even got as far as auditioning actors for the role.

We know this because one of the actors who auditioned, who Star Wars fans will definitely be familiar with, said as much recently: Sam Witwer.

Witwer is known for his roles as Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, as well as the voice of Emperor Palpatine in multiple other Star Wars projects. He also might be the number one Star Wars fan in the entire world.

As detailed in an article by Popverse’s Joshua Lapin-Bertone, Witwer revealed during a panel at Dragon Con this year that he auditioned to take on the role of Han Solo in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

“There was a moment on Clone Wars where George Lucas was thinking about bringing on a young Han Solo. I know that Dave [Filoni] auditioned a whole bunch of actors, and I was one of the actors they auditioned. I know that George knows that [imitates grumpy Harrison Ford voice] when I want to, I can do a serviceable Harrison Ford, or I can do an old grumpy Harrison”, Witwer revealed.

“What I did was Bob Falfa from American Graffiti… I did that, and I don’t know if Dave got what I was doing, but if you’re doing young Han Solo, he surely isn’t Han Solo yet. He’s trying to be Han Solo.”

For one reason or another, Lucas decided to scrap the idea entirely, which I think is kind of a shame.

Casting Han Solo in live action is one thing, but Witwer’s Harrison Ford impression is genuinely pretty good. Plus, he’s nailed every other Star Wars role he’s done, so I’m certain he’d have nailed this one too.