Han Solo, meet Fleabag? Millennium Falcon may gain a CGI character
Move over, Chewie. There may be another kind of fleabag aboard the Millennium Falcon next year.
Actress Pheobe Waller-Bridge, star of the BBC and Amazon-produced comedy show Fleabag, is in talks to join the forthcoming Han Solo movie, Mashable has confirmed via a source familiar with the talks.
With the Han Solo script locked up tighter than the Death Star on Sunday, we don't know who or what Waller-Bridge would be playing.
But Variety, which first revealed the talks, says she's the voice for a "CGI-driven" character -- much in the same way Alan Tudyk gave his voice and mannerisms to K-2SO in Rogue One.
If she gets the part, Waller-Bridge would be the latest in a line of relatively unknown young British actresses to appear in a blockbuster Star Wars movie. Daisy Ridley was the breakout star of The Force Awakens; Felicity Jones held her own at the center of Rogue One.
She'd also be the third woman to play a starring role in a Disney-led Star Wars film without showing her face. Lupita Nyong'o was similarly hidden behind the CGI character Maz Kanata, while Gwendoline Christie was unseen beneath the armor of Captain Phasma. Both those roles were rumored to have been offered to male actors first.
The Han Solo film's actors confirmed so far include Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian (the previous owner of the Millennium Falcon -- so yeah, we're pretty sure the ship shows up in this) and Woody Harrelson who'll play a "bit of a criminal" mentor to Solo.
And of course, Alden Ehrenreich stars as the scoundrel himself. He revealed last year that he had been screen-tested next to a Wookiee. No definitive word yet on whether this means Chewbacca himself shows up at this point in Han's life. But given the way Lando treated Chewie like an old pal when they met again in Cloud City -- "you still hanging around with this loser?" -- we wouldn't bet a hand of Sabacc against it.
Adding a female voice (at least) to the proceedings would thus provide some necessary relief and representation in a movie that is otherwise shaping up to be the most male-centric Star Wars adventure yet.
Topics Star Wars
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.