It’s official: the new era of Star Wars inaugurated by The Force Awakens, kicking off the hype cycle for the next movie this December, will also include an origin story for Han Solo, Ground Zero for every bad-boy complex from the late ’70s onward. More likely than not, Han 2.0 will be played by a complete unknown, like his (or her!) predecessor. Still, here are ten actors we’d love to see following in Harrison Ford’s footsteps.
Jai Courtney
He’s That Guy from every action blockbuster of the past five years. (Jack Reacher? Yeah. The Divergent movies? Mmhmm. Freaking Terminator: Genisys? You know it.) It just feels like time someone gave Courtney a prominent leading role, and a beloved franchise with low critical expectations — not that co-directors and Lego Movie alums Phil Lord and Chris Miller don’t have a track record of surpassing those — seems as good a place as any.
Andrew Garfield
Once again, the supply of actors with both the youth and the charisma to play Baby Han is slim, and while Garfield has zero point zero reasons to go back to blockbusters after taking his Amazing Spider-Man money and running, he’s one of the few candidates who immediately comes to mind. But while the Spider-Man movies definitely didn’t deserve Garfield and his charms, it’s possible a Lord and Miller movie — with a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan — will.
Image Credit: Darth
Kristen Stewart
Credit where it’s very much due to Elle Collins for Twitter’s best gender-bent casting suggestion and Photoshop wizard/adorable red panda avatar possessor Darth for the image. We wouldn’t be mad if Stewart continued her current classy French film phase, but we wouldn’t be mad if she ditched it to save us from the Mediocre Franchise-pocalypse either.
Ruby Rose
Keeping with the non-dude theme, Rose showed off her mysterious, amoral love interest chops on this season of Orange Is the New Black as Stella, Piper’s crush turned prison mistress, only to be (conveniently?) written off the show in its finale… leaving the Australian actress-model free to play a rebellious type with slightly more name recognition.
Jennifer Lawrence
Screw it — Hollywood’s got a chronic shortage of young male leads anyway, so yet another potential female Han it is. It’s doubtful this prequel even has a JLaw-level budget, but it’s hard to think of any male actor her age who’s already pulled off a major action franchise and lead roles in multiple Oscar-nominated comedies. Also, she has a proven track record with short hair.
Miles Teller
Yes, he’s already shackled to the Marvel machine for at least three Fantastic Four movies and four MCU cameos, but in a perfect world, wouldn’t Han be a far better use of his proven teen-heartthrob charms? And while Teller’s gotten most of his positive press from dramas like Whiplash and The Spectacular Now, he’s funny, too — although the upcoming Arms and the Dudes might be better proof of it than, say, That Awkward Moment.
Charlie Cox
Speaking of shackled to the Marvel machine… Daredevil is as solid as the burgeoning TV superhero drama genre has gotten yet, and those of us who know Cox from Boardwalk Empire have seen him at peak “compelling but ill-advised romantic prospect.”
Dylan O’Brien
As “Stiles” Stilinski, O’Brien is responsible for a solid chunk of MTV drama Teen Wolf‘s cult appeal. He’s currently the lead of generic-to-the-point-of-warranting-an-SNL-parody YA franchise The Maze Runner, so it’d be nice to see him on a platform that’s both bigger than cable and has more personality than an attempt to capitalize on Hunger Games Mania.
Shia LaBeouf
This will definitely not happen, but I want it to. So. Badly. And I know the American public does, too. C’mon, he wouldn’t have gotten cast as Harrison Ford’s kid in that other totally unnecessary sequel if there wasn’t a little bit of the Ford charisma under all the facial hair and weird performance art stunts.
Chris Pratt
This is not so much an endorsement, or even an earnest prediction, as an attempt to get ahead of the inevitable casting rumors. Pratt’s probably booked for the next decade and playing the character who so obviously inspired his big-break role would feel more than a little incestuous — but hey, hype’s gonna hype!