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George Lucas almost put a young Han Solo in the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series (and Sam Witwer auditioned to play him)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars almost featured young Han Solo as a character, and Sam Witwer was up for the role with a particularly appropriate inspiration
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars ran for 133 episodes across 7 seasons (and multiple platforms) and included many iconic characters... but it almost included one more that fans might not have expected. Turns out, one of the characters considered for the show was Han Solo... and, in fact, the plan to include Han in Clone Wars got far enough along that auditions were held.
“There was a moment on Clone Wars where George Lucas was thinking about bringing on a young Han Solo,” voice actor Sam Witwer says during a panel at Dragon Con 2025. “I know that Dave [Filoni] auditioned a whole bunch of actors, and I was one of the actors they auditioned. I know that George knows that [imitates grumpy Harrison Ford voice] when I want to, I can do a serviceable Harrison Ford, or I can do an old grumpy Harrison.”
For his Han Solo audition Witwer decided to take things in another direction by channeling one of Ford’s earlier roles. “What I did was Bob Falfa from American Graffiti,” Witwer says. He then imitated a few of Ford’s lines from the 1973 film.
“I did that, and I don’t know if Dave got what I was doing, but if you’re doing young Han Solo, he surely isn’t Han Solo yet. He’s trying to be Han Solo.”
Ultimately Lucas and Filoni abandoned the idea of having Han show up in The Clone Wars. Still, it would’ve been interesting to see a young Han Solo in animated form... and hear him "trying" to be the character he later became, played by the same man who brings Darth Maul back to animated life.
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