There are popular movie franchises, and then there’s Star Wars. Entire generations were brought up on the galaxy far, far away, and it’s a huge part of pop culture as a whole. Plenty of famous faces have joined the space opera on the small and silver screens, but what about the great Tom Hanks? The Elvis actor recently confirmed he almost had a secret cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
There’s been a ton of Star Wars content produced and released since Disney acquired Lucasfilm and started the property back up. This includes a pair of standalone films, the last of which was Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Tom Hanks recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he was asked to confirm or deny rumors that Howard approached him to cameo as a Stormtrooper. Hanks got honest about the situation, saying:
I would have done that, yeah I couldn’t make that work. I couldn’t get there in time. I think now if you do a survey all kinds of famous people have been in the Stormtrooper outfit. I think Danny Craig was in one, I know movie executives have shown up to be a Stormtrooper. I’d do it. That was one thing about Star Wars, within the first 45 seconds of it, as soon as you saw a Stormtrooper, never mind Darth Vader, but as soon as you saw those guys running around in those Stormtrooper outfits, you were in the hands of something that’d been really well thought out, despite the fact of a lack of gravity on all those ships.
Well, there you have it. It looks like scheduling and travel prevented Tom Hanks from getting to join the galaxy far, far away as a Stormtrooper. And in the process, he would have joined the ranks of various celebrities and executives who have suited up to play within the property in this subtle way. Maybe that’s why Stormtroopers have such notoriously bad aim.
Tom Hanks’ comments from Happy Sad Confused came during a round of quick fire questions, where the acclaimed actor was able to confirm or dispel rumors about his career. While he denied being approached for certain rumored roles, that wasn’t the case when it came to the chatter about Solo: A Star Wars Story. But which Stormtrooper could Hanks have played in the somewhat infamous blockbuster?
Solo: A Star Wars Story is somewhat infamous as far as the franchise’s big screen installments go. The project began filming with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller behind the camera, before they were unceremoniously fired from the project by the Lucasfilm powers that be. Ron Howard stepped in to complete the project, which ended up being the franchise’s sole box office disappointment. Still, Tom Hanks seems like he wished he got the chance to do a top secret cameo.
As the Forrest Gump icon mentioned, Daniel Craig got to join the beloved space opera in a similar fashion. He was a Stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, specifically the one that Rey managed to mind control while in First Order captivity. Now someone has to ask Ron Howard where he would have included Tom Cruise’s scrapped cameo.
The Star Wars franchise continues to expand on the small screen, and Taika Waititi is expected to helm the next standalone film for theaters. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
