Harrison Ford Nominates Himself to Play Young Han Solo in 'Star Wars' Prequel

Kevin Polowy
·Senior Correspondent, Yahoo Entertainment
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Harrison Ford has not been paying attention to the search to find a young Han Solo, which should come to the surprise of absolutely no one who has ever witnessed an interview with or public appearance by Harrison Ford.

The 73-year-old actor is friendly but famously cantankerous, especially when it comes to answering questions about Star Wars and his iconic smuggler for going on 39 years now. He doesn’t suffer fools, won’t respond with more than a word to questions he deems prying or inane, and sure as hell won’t engage in Hollywood speculation.

“I don’t have a way into this thing,” Ford told Yahoo Movies this weekend at the press junket for Star Wars: The Force Awakens when asked if he had any favorites in Disney/Lucasfilm’s hunt for Young Han, which has been called “the widest casting search ever” with a reported 2,500 actors (including folks like Miles Teller, Dave Franco, Tom Felton, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) courting the part.

Related: Should This Harrison Ford Lookalike Play a Young Han Solo?

“I don’t have any kids who are interested in an acting career. I don’t have a pony in that race,” said Ford, who has four sons (ranging from 14 to 48) and one daughter, 25. Asked if the possibility has ever come up with his children, Ford responded, “No, we’re talking about homework and water polo and stuff like that.”

Ford said he wasn’t even aware of the targeted age range for the young Solo, whose origin story will be directed by filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and is scheduled for release in May 2018.

Related: Josh Holloway on New Prequel—'Damn, I’d Love to Play Han Solo’

Told that the role’s likely winner will be in his mid-to-late-20s, Ford shot back with his proposed candidate: “I could do that,” he said. “I could act that.”

And hey, after a year that saw both Michael Douglas (Ant-Man) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator Genisys) believably aged down on the big screen, today’s visual-effects artists could probably do that, too.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens Dec. 18.

Watch J.J. Abrams endorse Ava DuVernay to direct a ‘Star Wars’ movie:

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