We nearly hadChristian Balein aStar Warsmovie, folks. Indeed, as casting was heating up on thethen-untitled Han Solo movie, which has now been officially namedSolo: A Star Wars Story, theDark Knightactor’s name started making the rounds. Lucasfilm was looking for a big name to fill the role of Han Solo’s sorta mentor in the pic, and whileWoody Harrelsonwas ultimately cast in the part,THR’s Borys Kitrevealed that before Harrelson was cast, Bale was the other big name in the mix.
So how close did this come to happening? Pretty darn close, it sounds like. Bale recently appeared onJosh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confusedand confirmed that talks did take place forSolo:
“Yes, [it was] very tempting. I not only love the films going back to my childhood but also have a very long relationship withKathleen KennedyandFrank Marshallbecause they didEmpire of the Sunmany years back. There was discussion, [and] I hope there will be future discussions.”
Bale doesn’t elaborate on why that casting didn’t work out—he didn’t shoot anything this summer and didn’t start filmingAdam McKay’s Dick Cheney movie until late September—but boy that would have been an interesting fit, especially given how things worked out. I would’ve been mighty curious to see how an actor like Bale meshed with directors likePhil LordandChris Miller, even if the duo ultimately left the film.
But it sounds like Bale isverymuch interested in doing something in theStar Warsuniverse at some point, as he confessed on the same podcast he’s a huge fan of the franchise and has something of a family connection:
“Star WarsI’m a huge fan. YeahStar Warsreally interests me. I’ve still got the Millennium Falcon, I’ve got the AT-AT. My daughter, her first love was Darth Vader. She absolutely adored Darth Maul. [She] stood near him at Disneyland and he growled and he’s got those teeth and he stayed in character, really wonderful performance, and she was teeny and I thought, ‘This is gonna scare the crap out of her, this is such a bad idea.’ And then she stopped and she said, ‘Daddy, I’m in love.’”
One thing we probably won’t see Bale in is another superhero movie. Elsewhere on the podcast, the actor confesses he doesn’t have much interest in the superhero genre, and he hasn’t seenBen Affleck’s iteration of Batman just yet:
“I have not [seen Ben Affleck’s Batman]. Yes I’m interested [in seeing it], my son seemed like he was really interested, but then I realized he just wanted to see the trailer and that was it—I tend to go see films that [my kids] want to see. I have to confess I’m not a huge superhero film fan. People seem surprised at that, I don’t know why. I’ve not seen any of theAvengersfilms or any of those films at all. I hear they’re very good, but I’m quite happy just hearing they’re very good.”
So don’t hold your breath for Christian Bale in a Marvel movie, but perhaps he’ll venture to a galaxy far, far away sooner rather than later. Listen to the full podcast episode below. TheStar Warstalk begins around the 38:45 mark.
