'Star Wars' Rumors: Will Alden Ehrenreich's Han Solo Début on 'Rogue One'?

While London's Star Wars Celebration trailer for Rogue One still hasn't been released to the general public, it has been known for a while that the film, set right before the events of A New Hope, will definitely include Darth Vader -- but will he be joined by another character from the classic trilogy? New rumors say Alden Ehrenreich could play Han Solo earlier than we thought!

The rumors began when it came out that Ehrenreich, who was recently confirmed as Lucasfilm's choice to play a younger version of the iconic space pilot originated by Harrison Ford, had signed a multi-picture deal with the studio. According to The New York Daily News, the Hail, Caesar! actor has signed up for "at least three movies" in the role of Han Solo, so the origin story spinoff will probably be told over a trilogy.

Because of this, some fractions of the press believed this meant that Ehrenreich would be involved in Rogue One, a film set barely any time before Han met the Skywalker twins and got involved with the Rebellion. However, fan site Star Wars Underworld got the scoop that the character wouldn't be part of the film, after Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed the rumors were untrue. The producer also laughed at rumors that Rogue One ends minutes before the start of A New Hope.

"I love that it has been reduced to that precise amount," Kennedy said. "It definitely leads into New Hope, that is very intentional, but it is a completely new and separate set of characters and it is a story that sits outside of anything anyone would necessarily know in New Hope."

The speculation made sense, considering the timeline is very close to the events of the first Star Wars movie, and it has already been confirmed that Darth Vader would make an appearance, voiced once again by legendary actor James Earl Jones. Still, he's the only Vader returning: Hayden Christensen, who played the Sith Lord in Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, won't be making another appearance in the role of Anakin Skywalker.

Rogue One is the first of a planned new spinoff series of movies set in the Star Wars universe, called Anthology. Other movies include the Han Solo origin story and a planned Boba Fett one.

Rogue One, which will introduce a set of new characters to the saga, will star Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones in the main role of Jyn Erso. Other stars involved include Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, sci-fi veteran and Firefly alum Alan Tudyk and Hannibal actor Mads Mikkelsen.