Sunday, January 22, 2017

Is Woody Harrelson Playing Garris Shrike in the Han Solo Film?

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By: Dominic Jones

Outside of the cast, little is known of the upcoming young Han Solo A Star Wars Story film from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street).  The story takes place several years before the events of A New Hope and will feature Han (Alden Ehrenreich) on an adventure with Lando (Donald Glover), Chewie, and a new character played by Games of Thrones star Emilia Clarke.  Also in the mix is Han Solo's mentor, played by Woody Harrelson.  Harrelson was at the Sundance Film Festival and he was asked about the role by during a Variety Q&A.


Specifically, Harrelson was asked if he is playing the role of Garris Shrike (Han Solo's mentor in Legends) and he appears to confirm he is.  However, there is still cause to doubt that's actually his character's name.  Take a look at the video and see for yourself,
As you can see, Harrelson seems a bit confused by the question (as if he's never heard the name "Garris Shrike" before).  When the person asking the question attempts to clarify for him, it sounds more like they are just asking if he's playing Han's mentor (which he's already confirmed).  So when Harrelson answers the question, it appears to me as though he is only saying yes to playing Han's mentor--not Garris Shrike specifically.

The Lucasfilm Story Group's Pablo Hidalgo also sent out the following tweets, which appear to be addressing this situation (and coming to the same conclusion as above),

Hidalgo also sent out this follow up tweet, referring to an incident at San Diego Comic Con 2015,
"Darth Vegas" refers to an exchange between Lawrence Kasdan (writer of Episodes V-VII and the Han Solo film) and a fan at San Diego Comic Con in 2015 where a fan asked about Darth Plagueis being in The Force Awakens.  Kasdan response made it clear he was not familiar with the character, even asking if the fan had asked about "Darth Vegas".  See below,



While it's still technically possible (though highly unlikely) that Harrelson is playing Shrike, his character would probably be similar to the one from the books in name only.  It wouldn't be more than a tip of the hat to the old Legends stories, but even that seems unlikely.  (Again, Harrelson doesn't seem to have ever heard that name before the question was asked).


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1 comments:

blivengo said...

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