Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy recently stated her opinion on recasting the decades-spanning saga’s principal roles with newer and younger actors. And surprisingly many in the highly opinionated Star Wars fandom didn’t agree with her at all.
Kennedy spoke to Vanity Fair about the comparatively small box office return of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the producer had a few things to say regarding hard lessons learned. Regarding the casting of Alden Ehrenreich as a younger version of the iconic spice-smuggling rogue of the franchise’s original history, Kennedy stated that “there should be moments along the way when you learn things,” adding “now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”
The implication seems to be that when and if we ever see Han, Leia, or Chewbacca, we should probably expect something along the lines of the CGI- altered Luke Skywalker who appeared in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett rather than a brand new actor inhabiting the role. Star Wars fans, in typical Star Wars fan fashion, were quick to disagree.
Some fans even contrasted the decision with the now common policy of that “other” Star titled franchise to recast characters seemingly on a whim.
Of course, the fandom being what it is, there are also plenty of voices in favor of the change and a significant segment that just wants the franchise to move completely away from the nine movies and tell stories about entirely new characters set in the same galaxy far far away. There’s even a fair amount of Solo fans defending Aldenreich’s performance and the movie as a whole.
Of course, Star Wars is going to do what Star Wars is going to do. With the “Uncanny Valley” shrinking by the year, it’s likely viewers will see at least a few more digital cast members coming their way. Until it becomes cost-prohibitive or fans demand recasts, CGI remodeling of the originals is probably here to stay for a while.