While Ehrenreich’s career prior to 2018 is plenty notable for his collaborations with some of the biggest names in cinema history, his starring role in standalone “Star Wars” prequel “Solo: A Star Wars Story” that year granted him an entirely new degree of visibility among the general moviegoing public.
When “Solo” begins, its titular character is just 19 years old, before a three-year time skip following the film’s opening sequence kicks off its main story. For better or for worse, “Solo” then explores key moments of Han’s backstory alluded to in the original series of “Star Wars” movies, from first meeting Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), to navigating the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
Unfortunately for Ehrenreich, “Solo” was a divisive film for reasons largely out of his control. Simply put, Ehrenreich isn’t Harrison Ford, and no matter how skillfully he might have portrayed the younger version of Ford’s iconic sci-fi smuggler, measuring up to his predecessor was inherently an uphill battle. Perhaps because of the mixed reception to his performance, Ehrenreich’s career seems to have nearly come to a halt in the wake of “Solo,” only just picking back up again years later.
