Alden Ehrenreich received Harrison Ford's "blessing" before taking on Han Solo in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'.

Alden Ehrenreich

Alden Ehrenreich

The 28-year-old actor stars as a young Han Solo in the new 'Star Wars' spin-off movie, and has said he sat with Harrison - who plays the intergalactic smuggler in the main series of movies - to discuss the role before he stepped into his shoes.

Alden said: "Harrison was awesome, it was awesome just to meet him and have lunch with him. I met him at his airplane hangar in Santa Monica and we sat with like five planes around us. He basically said, 'Tell them I told you everything you need to know, but that you can't tell anyone anything.'

"He was so encouraging and supportive. It was really nice to walk onto the movie knowing I had his blessing."

The young star also admits he made sure to watch every movie in the main series before walking onto the set of the Ron Howard-directed film, as he wanted to make sure he fully understood the 'Star Wars' "universe".

Speaking to People magazine, he said: "It's a really specific world that has way different rules. I had to make the role personal. I just wanted to know as much as I could about the universe. There's more literature out there about 'Star Wars' than almost anything!"

Alden's comments come after he revealed recently that he's signed a multi-movie deal with Disney for his role in the popular franchise.

Asked how many 'Star Wars' films he's signed up for, Alden said: "Three. I don't know if that's officially, uh, public. But, yeah."

The 'Hail, Caesar!' star found out he'd won the iconic role three months before the news was leaked, but he still had to deny it was his until he was officially unveiled some time afterwards.

Alden recalled: "People were coming up to me in restaurants and congratulating me and I had to be like, 'Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about.'"

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