My 11 year old son came home from school today and I wanted to show him the new trailer. As he's watching it he says, "that guy doesn't look like Han Solo". Now I'm not one of the ones here on this forum with their panties in a bunch because AE doesn't look or sound like Harrison Ford. In fact I've never seen a movie with AE. I am by no means anti-AE and I really don't know anything about the other guy either. But as I was thinking about what my son said I thought to myself, is it really wrong for some fans to want the actor portraying Han Solo to, you know, look and sound like Han Solo? Mannerisms, attitude, body language, etc do help a little, but is it wrong to want more of a connection? One that maybe feels more believable?
I get that River Phoenix didn't look like Ford when he played young Indy, but he wasn't carrying an entire film. And when Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade came out Ford was around 47 and River Phoenix was about 19. Considering Harrison Ford was around 34 when SW filmed and AE is 28, I get why some people may feel there is a disconnect because that isn't much of an age difference. Even if Solo in this movie is supposed to be "younger" than the real age of the actor portraying him, I can see how it would be hard to accept. It's hard to do an origins type story when we already had a small glimpse into the younger character some 40 years ago. I guess maybe it would be easier to swallow if Solo in this movie was supposed to be in his early teens, but not sure that's the case.
Again, I am not anti-AE, I hope he does a great job. But I got to thinking how would I have reacted if they did Solo as CGI? I didn't mind Tarkin in Rogue One, that was definitely one of the longest screen time performances by someone CG I can think of. I know it's not financially practical to do an entire movie with the lead as CG. But I liked seeing the young Leia in Rogue One, a younger Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy, a younger Michael Douglas in Ant Man, hell, they even un-****** Steven Tyler in that car commercial during the Super Bowl and made him look younger! Again, those were all short performances, so I get it. Or how would I have reacted if they chose an actor who just looked and sounded like Ford? I think they did a great job finding a young actor who looked like a young Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man Tell No Tales. I think it just tied the characters and the story together better IMHO, it felt believable which makes the attempt that much more pleasing. For me, I don't know anything about AE or AI, never seen either of their performances. So I guess as a Star Wars fan, I only want to see an actor who can make me believe I am watching a young Han Solo, so at this point I am crossing my fingers.