During a recent interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Kingsman star Taron Egerton revealed that he was once in the running to play the younger Han Solo in Solo: A Love Story, but he ended up removing himself in contention alongside Cyclops in the X-Men films.
“Yeah, I mean it’s hard,” Egerton said. “I feel like there’s like an unspoken thing in Hollywood where… it feels almost taboo to talk about the conversations you’ve had that never come to a reality. But I don’t care about that. No, I did. I did remove myself from both of those races. I did, yeah.”
Egerton also shared the audition process that he went through for the Han Solo role where he was wearing a full costume and was sharing a scene with Chewbecca. However, he ended up not going to the next stage.
“I felt like that… I felt that– I mean, I’ll be honest, I got on the Falcon. I was with Chewie. I was in the full costume… and I… you know what, that’s what I felt like. I felt like I got there, I did it, I lived it,” Egerton said. “And there was one more… there was another round that I decided not to do. And it’s far enough in the past now that I feel like I can say that.”
He continued, “I hope no one feels annoyed that I have said it. But it just felt to me like I didn’t feel… like you know when we mentioned earlier that thing when I read the Kingsman script and I was like, ‘This is– I’ve gotta do this. This is my part.’ I just didn’t feel it.”
“Yeah, and can really own it and really– ’cause you’re following Harrison Ford,” the actor concluded. “No one ever wants to follow Harrison Ford, you know? So yeah, that didn’t happen.”
It is interesting to learn that Egerton was in the running to play Han Solo although it is understandable to hear his reason why he put himself out of contention. While some might say that it was a missed opportunity, it sounds like the actor was fine with his decision. In the end, Alden Ehrenreich got the part and his performance was appreciated by the audience despite the film’s underwhelming box office performance.
It would be curious to see if Egerton will join a big franchise soon whether it’s the rumored Wolverine role or possibly putting himself in contention on another Star Wars project in the future. Either way, the Golden Globe-winning actor’s star power will certainly rise more as time goes by.
Also Read: Taron Egerton is NOT Playing the MCU’s Wolverine
Egerton is currently starring in the limited series Black Bird on Apple TV+.
