Actor Alden Ehrenreich was already having a huge year in Hollywood, with featured roles in the Coen Bros' hit Hail, Caesar! and the big Warren Beatty comeback drama Rules Don't Apply. But his profile shot through the stratosphere when he won the highly coveted role of young Han Solo in an upcoming Star Wars spin-off from Disney and Lucasfilm.

Now, the rising superstar is talking about his prospective co-stars and hopes for the film. The new movie, which is said to be the part of a potential trilogy within the "Star Wars Stories" subseries that arrive every two years, will take place several years prior to events of the original Star Wars: A New Hope and flesh out the backstory of the popular but often mysterious character originally portrayed by Harrison Ford.

Speaking to Variety, Ehrenreich offered his thoughts on the casting of fan-favorite Donald Glover as the younger incarnation of Billy Dee Williams' Lando Calrissian:

“I’m allowed to say that I’m really excited about Donald Glover’s casting. ... I think he’s going to be great in the role because he’s such a talented and interesting guy. And I can say that Chewbacca’s in the film, although I know that’s not a huge spoiler.”

Speaking of Chewbacca, Ehrenreich went on to clarify that he does not believe the character (who is said to be about 210 years old in the Original Trilogy) will be depicted too differently from the version fans are most familiar with, as he has likely reached the age of relative adulthood for Wookies in either era (and was already seen looking largely the same even younger in Revenge of The Sith):

“He’s as much younger as I am in the film. So, I think he’s like 190 — or something — years old. I don’t think there’s a huge growth spurt for him from 190 to 210, so he’s probably about the same height.”

Still unknown is what the storyline of the new film will follow. While Han, Lando and Chewbacca have their backgrounds kept largely vague in the original films, fans will recall that Solo and Calrissian were close friends at one point and that Lando was the original owner of the Millenium Falcon. Chewbacca is also described as owing Han a "life debt" for an unspecified act on his behalf, which many fans had expected to be touched on in the feature. Some details of Chewbacca's earlier life and extended family were offered by the Star Wars Holiday Special, but were later declared not part of the franchise's official canon.

Source: Variety