Woody Harrelson talks War for the Planet of the Apes & Han Solo spin-off

The year has just barely begun, but it's already shaping up to be a good one for Woody Harrelson. Not only does he have the third entry in the rebooted PLANET OF THE APES franchise on the way, but he was also recently confirmed to be appearing in Christopher Miller and Phil Lord's UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM. Not bad, not bad at all. Woody Harrelson is taking on the villain role, a man referred to as the Colonel, in WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES and he spoke with Collider about his excitement at joining the PLANET OF THE APES franchise.

It turns out that Harrelson has been a big fan of the PLANET OF THE APES series for some time, but he was really blown away by RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and its sequel, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. The actor was already looking forward to the third entry in the series, even before he knew he was going to be in it.

I’m like, ‘Geez I can’t wait to see the third one!’ and little did I know I’d be in it. So I feel really lucky to be a part of it. I think Matt [Reeves] is an incredible, gifted, super smart filmmaker. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who can pull off what he’s doing, it is so humungous.

Woody Harrelson is certainly no stranger to blockbusters, but even he found WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES' large-scale to be somewhat daunting at first. "It took me a little while to get used to it because it was definitely the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of, it was like going to work at a city, literally. And probably that many people and dozens of cameras, all different types of cameras, super high-tech cameras, motion-capture cameras, so technically it was wild." That large-scale will, at the very least, be matched by the UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM, in which Harrelson will be appearing as Han Solo's (Alden Ehrenreich) mentor. During a Facebook Live interview with Mashable, Harrelson spilled a very small detail about his new role, but declined to say anything more as those infamous Disney snipers were likely close by.

I’m a mentor to Han, but I’m also a bit of a criminal. I don’t think I should say much more than that because the Force is not allowing me.

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES will hit theaters on July 14, 2017 and the UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM is set for a May 25, 2018 release, although there have been rumblings that it may be pushed back to December.