After more than a year of casting rumors, announcements and other assorted notes, filming on the Star Wars standalone movie about a young Han Solo is finally underway. Lucasfilm noted the beginning of principal photography on the production with a cast photo taken in the very familiar cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.
Included in the photo with star Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!), who will play the roguish intergalactic smuggler made famous by Harrison Ford, are several actors who were reported to be joining the cast or confirmed, but their place in the cast is now official with the official Lucasfilm release. Flanking Ehrenreich are Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), and Donald Glover (Atlanta), along with directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (The LEGO Movie), and the familiar, furry face of Chewbacca.
Harrelson will reportedly play Han Solo’s mentor, while Waller-Bridge will play a motion-capture role as a droid (the first female droid in Star Wars movies). Clarke’s role hasn’t been clarified, but the speculation is that she’ll play Solo’s girlfriend. Glover will be a young Lando Calrissian, portrayed in the original trilogy by Billy Dee Williams. And playing Chewbacca will be Joonas Suotamo, not Peter Mayhew, who was in costume as Solo’s sidekick for six Star Wars films (including the upcoming The Last Jedi).
Not included in the cast photo is Thandie Newton (Westworld), who has also been added to the ensemble. (Newton said she was invisible in the image.)
Hopefully, we’ll see the rest of the cast suited up in costume soon enough. For now, we just get Suotamo in the familiar Chewbacca suit, which was surely already on hand. (He was actually Mayhew’s double during filming of The Force Awakens.) Plus, maybe it maintains a bit of mystery if we don’t see what the guy playing Chewbacca looks like outside the suit. Although you can see what Suotamo really looks like on his Twitter and IMDB pages.
“Watching such inspired people from all over the world, with such unique voices, come together for the sole purpose of making art, is nothing short of miraculous,” Lord and Miller said in the official release. “We can’t think of anything funny to say, because we just feel really moved, and really lucky.”
The Han Solo film doesn’t yet have a title, but is scheduled to be released on May 25, 2018.