Alden Ehrenreich has been selected out of thousands of potential actors to play Han Solo in a forthcoming 'Star Wars' spin-off film featuring the character in his younger days. He'll be taking over from Harrison Ford, who made the role famous and reprised it just recenlty in JJ Abrams' 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'.

Alden EhrenreichAlden Ehrenreich is Han Solo

This isn't the sequel, however; merely a stand-alone addition to the franchise focusing on Han Solo before he became a part of the Rebel Alliance. Reports have suggested that the film will be called 'Han Solo: A Star Wars Story' and will be set somewhere between 'Episode III' and 'Episode IV'.  Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are set to direct with Lawrence Kasdan and son Jon Kasden writing the screenplay, and filming is due to start in January 2017.

It seems Ehrenreich beat the likes of Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Scott Eastwood, Taron Egerton and Jack Reynor to the role. 'Alden really impressed Disney and Lucasfilm execs with his screen tests', a source told Page Six. 'The deal is basically done.' 

More: Watch the trailer for the next spin-off 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

So what do we know about Alden Ehrenreich? His debut screen role was in the TV series 'Supernatural' back in 2005, playing a character called Ben Collins in the episode 'Wendigo'. Then his debut movie role came with Francis Ford Coppola's 2009 drama 'Tetro'. Since then, he's appeared in a number of high profile films including Woody Allen's Oscar winning 'Blue Jasmine', Richard LaGravenese's 2013 fantasy 'Beautiful Creatures' and Chan-wook Park's award-winning thriller 'Stoker'. His latest movie appearance was in this year's Coen Brothers comedy 'Hail, Caesar!' starring George Clooney, in which he played a Western movie star named Hobie Doyle.

As well as the new 'Star Wars' spin-off, his upcoming projects include an untitled Warren Beatty movie about American business tycoon Howard Hughes. The movie is directed and written by Beatty who stars as Hughes, while Ehrenreich plays Frank Forbes. Lily Collins, Alec Baldwin and Steve Coogan also star. Plus, there's Alexandre Moors' war drama 'The Yellow Birds' in which he will feature opposite Jennifer Aniston, Tye Sheridan and others.

The 26-year-old was born in Los Angeles, but went to New York University to study acting (though never completed the course). He was raised in a Jewish family (already drawing parallels to Harrison Ford who is half-Jewish) and was actually first discovered by Steven Spielberg at a bat mitzvah. He co-founded a group called The Collectin in 2009 with another actress called Zoë Worth, with whom he co-starred in 2015's 'Running Wild'. Since the group - which also features filmmakers as well as actors - began, they've put on a variety of stage shows in New York and LA.

'Han Solo: A Star Wars Story' is currently expected to be released on May 25th 2018.