Ever look at that vest-wearing, blaster-firing renegade Han Solo and wonder if he likes tossed salad and scrambled eggs with his blue milk? Well, there was a time when he might have, given that before Harrison Ford became captain of the Millennium Falcon, Frasier Crane himself, aka Kelsey Grammer, had a crack at the role.
Speaking to Conan O’Brien about his brush with the galaxy far, far away in 2018, Grammer recalled how he nearly ended up starring in “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.” After being thrown out of Juilliard in the mid-1970s, he was put in touch with an agent who advised him “there’s a guy two blocks up the street but he’s looking for young men for this movie about outer space. His name is Lucas. Go see him.”
Grammer recalled that upon meeting George Lucas, “He explains to me that they’re doing this movie about a fairy tale in space. There’s two guys in it who go and rescue a princess. That’s pretty much it.” After they talked about echoing the likes of John Wayne for the “older” of the two guys, Han Solo, Grammer auditioned for the role but regrettably never got a call back.
Cut to two years later, and the future “Frasier” star was sitting down in a theater to watch some space movie. “It’s ‘Star Wars,’ and I suddenly realized, ‘Oh my God. This is that movie. That’s that weird guy.’ So I really missed one there.” Plenty of other names-in-the-making tried their hand at playing Han before Harrison Ford got the gig, and while he might have missed out, Grammer did eventually find his way into another beloved science-fiction property years later.
Kelsey Grammer got bumped from Star Wars but beamed up by Star Trek
Besides a famous future patron of “Cheers” and Seattle’s most beloved DJ, a few other notable actors came close to playing Han in “A New Hope.” Al Pacino, in particular, declined the role because he just didn’t get the film’s script. Likewise, Christopher Walken once recalled to The Independent, “I did audition [for Han Solo], but I don’t think I came remotely close to getting the job.”
Even Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, tried out for Han, but it wasn’t a great match. Thankfully, though, he helped to nudge his roommate, Mark Hamill, into auditioning for the role of Luke Skywalker and, well, the rest is history from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Grammer, meanwhile, may have missed out on “Star Wars,” but he was eventually needed on the bridge for a rule-breaking episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
In “The Next Generation” season 5, episode 18, “Cause and Effect,” Grammer pops up as Morgan Bateson, the captain of the USS Bozeman. The character himself would return years later in an episode of the animated series “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” although he doesn’t actually speak there. Okay, so that’s not exactly the same as playing the iconic “Star Wars” rogue, but at least Bateson didn’t get stabbed through the chest by his own son. Sorry Han, old buddy.
