There were some pretty big celebrity cameos filmed for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and previous films in the universe. Although not all of them ended up making the movies, the big names involved were still something fun to talk about leading up to release. However, Solo: A Star Wars Story opted to take a different tact. In a recent interview, Ron Howard revealed that the latest Star Wars movie doesn't feature any big cameos from a-listers; however, he did say that at one point Tom Hanks expressed interest in showing up. Per the director:
We really don't. Tom Hanks was interested in being a Stormtrooper, but he's -- it would have been great -- he was shooting, and he just couldn't get there. Now that Lucasfilm knows that Hanks is interested, I'm sure they'll work it out someday.
Ah scheduling conflicts, the bane of many a movie's existence. Per what Ron Howard told JOE.ie, Howard spoke with Tom Hanks, who starred in The Da Vinci Code and subsequent sequels, Angels & Demons and Inferno, about doing a small cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Ron Howard picked up the production of Solo last July, after previous directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from the movie. The movie then underwent extensive reshoots, including letting Michael K. Williams go (also due to scheduling conflicts) and signing on Marvel's Paul Bettany. Along the way, a lot of decisions had to be discussed and made, and one of those apparently had to do with the affable Hanx.
Tom Hanks does a lot of producing work these days in addition to his acting gigs, but during the time Solo: A Star Wars Story was still coming together, Steven Spielberg and co. were also working on The Post, a movie that started production in May of 2017. By November, Spielberg had the film edited, and it came out in time for the Christmas holiday. I'm assuming that it was somewhere within that time frame that Ron Howard and Tom Hanks were trying to get the cameo to work, and boy, would it have been a good one. Still, if Tom Hanks was interested beyond working with Howard for a cameo, perhaps it's something we'll get to see down the line. The closest Solo gets to a celebrity "cameo" -- and minor spoiler -- is not really a cameo at all, as it's bringing back Warwick Davis in the same role he played in The Phantom Menace.
If you are interested in cameos, Star Wars: The Last Jedi famously filmed a scene with Tom Hardy that was cut. Prince William and Prince Harry also filmed cameos; those were cut, too. So, there are hazards to filming cameos, and even those celebrities who do film cameos aren't always guaranteed to have their moment in the film. Still, Star Wars has included plenty of actors you may not have noticed in the past. If you want to dive deep into that list, we have you covered.
In addition, if you want to see what presumably Tom Hank-less Star Wars films are in the works, here's our full list of what is coming up.
