Solo Star Wars Story: Guess which A-list actor almost BEAT Harrison Ford to original role?

With Alden Ehrenreich playing the younger version of the character, many are looking back at Ford’s now legendary performance.

But he wasn’t the only actor in the frame for the gig.

Kurt Russell and James Caan have been previously revealed as being in the running before Ford bagged the job, and now it seems Kelsey Grammar was also met by George Lucas.

Speaking to Conan, he spoke about when he was 20-years-old and recently kicked out of drama school Julliard – and his agent managed to get him a meeting with the Star Wars film-maker.

“I walked up there, and I sat down and there’s Lucas sitting there,” he recalled.

“He explains to me that they’re doing this movie about a fairy tale in space. He said, ‘There’s two guys in it who go and rescue a princess. That’s pretty much it,’ and he said, ‘I think maybe you’re a little old for the younger guy and maybe a little too young for the older guy, but you might make a pretty good, sort of like a John Wayne character.’

“I thought, ‘Oh I can do that,’ and he said, ‘Well I’ll think about it,’ and then that’s the last I heard of it.”

How different would the franchise have gone on to be if the man behind Frasier and Sideshow Bob had ended up playing Han Solo?

Meanwhile, Ford is reportedly very impressed with Ehrenreich’s efforts in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

“I had never heard Harrison [being] effusive about anything, and he was raving about it,” director Ron Howard told Variety.

“He said, ‘Alden nailed it. He made it his own.'”

Solo: A Star Wars Story is expected to be a strong contender to break the all-time Memorial Day box office record in the US.

It comes just a week after another strong box office fixture, Deadpool 2, scored the second-highest R-rated opening of all time.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is out now.