The ‘Star Wars’ movie that almost starred Tom Hanks: “That would have been great”
Considering how big a star Tom Hanks is, it’s incredible that he hasn’t been a part of many major franchises. His biggest series, by far, is Toy Story, where he’s voiced the neurotic cowboy Woody in all four (soon to be five) of Pixar’s classic animations. Beyond that, Hanks rarely returns for sequels—well, with the notable exception of the Robert Langdon series, of which he inexplicably made three. Nobody’s perfect, not even Tom Hanks.
As it turns out, America’s dad could have played a small part in another US institution: Star Wars. This near-miss came about through his relationship with director Ron Howard. The former Happy Days star directed Hanks’ big breakout turn in Splash, and the two have reunited many times since, including on Apollo 13 and the aforementioned ‘Robert Langdon’ trilogy. Again, nobody’s perfect.
After original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired by LucasFilm, Howard took over the reins of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Starring Alden Ehrenreich as a younger version of the legendary smuggler, the movie was the second anthology-style instalment in the Star Wars canon following the success of Rogue One. The movie also features appearances from Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover, and, if Howard had gotten his way, his old pal Tom would have turned up too.
“Tom Hanks wanted to be a stormtrooper, but I couldn’t get him,” he told Empire. “He wasn’t available. That would have been great. I don’t even know if he really meant it, but he said that he’d love to come and be a stormtrooper but it didn’t quite ever happen. Maybe next time.”
This wouldn’t have been the only time in Star Wars history that a massive celebrity hid under the iconic white helmet of a Stormtrooper. Daniel Craig played the Trooper guarding Rey in a scene in The Force Awakens, becoming the first person to fall victim to her recently-discovered Jedi mind powers. Legendary composer Michael Giacchino and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich also feature in similar roles. The Last Jedi features Take That singer Gary Barlow as Stormtrooper, as well as Prince William and Prince Harry, sons of the future King Charles III. As for The Rise of Skywalker, the likes of Karl Urban, Dhani Harrison (son of Beatle George), and Ed Sheeran all made it into the final cut, albeit with their famous faces obscured.
Of course, Hanks has a history of brief yet memorable film cameos. In The Simpsons Movie, he plays himself in a commercial for a ‘new Grand Canyon’, which prompts the yellow family to return and save Springfield. His best walk-on part has to be in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, where he encounters the titular Kazakh journalist in Australia, becoming one of the first people to catch Covid-19 as a result.
In the end, perhaps it’s for the best that Hanks wasn’t involved with Solo. It’s a fine movie but ultimately pointless. It does little to add to the aura of the title character, apart from showing how he and Chewbacca met, and the plot is meandering at best and downright boring at worst. In financial terms, Solo was a massive flop. It was one of the most expensive movies ever made at the time, and its failure to recoup large parts of its budget threw plans for future anthology movies into complete disarray.
