Is Aaron Paul the new Han Solo in Star Wars spin-off movie?
The Breaking Bad actor is being linked to a Solo-centric film
Aaron Paul could be trading his battered RV for the Millennium Falcon, if a new casting rumour is to be believed.
Bear in mind that this is the rumouriest of rumours, but Star Wars fan sites are suggesting that the Breaking Bad actor could appear in a Han Solo spin-off movie, to be filmed at the same time as Episode VIII.
As well as the sequel trilogy, starting with Episode VII: The Force Awakens next year, Disney plans to release at least two stand-alone spin-off films not directly tied into the main storyline. According to the fan site Making Star Wars, which has a reasonable track record with this sort of thing, one of these films will focus on Han Solo and is codenamed ‘Luminac Industrial Goods’.
Their source suggests Aaron Paul is “looking to be attached” to the film in some way, but is at pains to point out that there was “no direct implication he was playing Han Solo.” But hey, the jump from meth dealer to galactic bounty hunter isn’t so big, is it? Certainly less than 12 parsecs.
Harrison Ford, the OG scruffy nerf herder, is rejoining his fellow co-stars including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher in The Force Awakens, which takes place after the original trilogy. At 35, Paul is Ford’s junior by 37 years, and is the same age Harrison was when he first took on the role.
More like this
Speculating even further, if Paul were to play Solo it would likely be a prequel to the original trilogy – perhaps going into Solo’s backstory with co-pilot Chewbacca – but a sequel to the prequel movies that started with The Phantom Menace. Got that?
Intriguingly, Paul has already guest starred in Star Wars. Sort of. The actor recently played the role of Luke Skywalker in a star studded live reading of The Empire Strikes Back. Mark Hamill, the original Luke, played Obi-Wan Kenobi while Han Solo was played by Ellen ‘Juno’ Page.
Forget the spin-off, someone needs to film that remake immediately.
