Los Angeles Times

'Solo: A Star Wars Story' duo Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover breathe new life into beloved characters

It's always daunting to take on a character that's been memorably played before by another actor. But stepping into an iconic role in a "Star Wars" movie? As Han Solo would say, "Never tell me the odds."

In the new "Star Wars" spinoff film "Solo: A Star Wars Story," in theaters May 25, Alden Ehrenreich plays a younger version of Harrison Ford's swaggering, swashbuckling smuggler in an adventure set years before the events of the original trilogy. Directed by Ron Howard, who stepped in after the original directors, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, were fired midway through production, the film is a cross between a heist movie and a space western, chronicling Solo's first encounters with his Wookiee sidekick, Chewbacca, the Millennium Falcon and his stalwart frenemy, the smooth-talking gambler Lando Calrissian, who was introduced in 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back" by Billy Dee Williams and who is played in "Solo" by actor-writer-musician Donald Glover.

"Solo" marks the first venture into the blockbuster realm for Ehrenreich, 28, who has appeared in such films as "Rules Don't

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