When Alden Ehrenreich was tasked with following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford by playing Han Solo in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story, the odds were very much stacked against him.
Despite that, he did a terrific job and is now heading from a Galaxy Far, Far Away to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cast in Disney+'s Ironheart, the prevailing theory is he's playing Obidiah Stane's son, Zeke Stane.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com), Ehrenreich shared the advice his Oppenheimer co-star Robert Downey Jr. offered before he signed on to join the franchise.
"He was talking about 'microdosing' commercial projects alongside artistic ones, and then right before I said yes to it, I just FaceTimed him and was like, 'Is there something that I need to know before I sign on to this?' I was like, 'Is he going to say, ‘Don’t do it’?'"
"I think they asked Harrison Ford before [Solo] what he would say to the next Han Solo, and he said, 'Don’t do it.' But Downey didn’t say that, and I sort of had the honor of introducing [Downey Jr. and Thorne]," Ehrenreich continued. "They didn’t know each other and hadn’t talked yet, so I put them in contact with each other."
"He is so unf***ingbelievably generous and sweet and giving with his time, and he was so happy to talk to her and encourage her. So that was really nice."
In the same interview, the actor was asked if he thinks Han Solo ever figured out that the reason Qi'ra left the smuggler was to protect him from Maul and Crimson Dawn.
"It’s a great question. We’ll see. I have no idea," he admitted. "I haven’t heard the term Crimson Dawn in a long time."
With no word on definite plans for a Solo sequel and that Lando series seemingly falling by the wayside, the answer to the reporter's question is unlikely to be revealed in the near future. However, we're very excited to see what Ehrenreich brings to the MCU as a character who could be a huge part of both Ironheart and the eventual Armor Wars movie.