Jon Favreau voicing alien character in Han Solo spin-off

Ron Howard has recruited his fellow actor/director Jon Favreau to lend his voice to a "very important" alien role in his forthcoming Han Solo Star Wars spin-off movie.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is currently in post-production, but earlier this month (Feb18), Spider-Man: Homecoming actor Favreau shared a photo of himself on Twitter with Howard and Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.

He simply captioned it, "@RealRonHoward and Lawrence Kasdan #starwars #solo".

On Wednesday (14Feb18), Howard retweeted the shot for his followers, and revealed his friend had actually joined them in the studio to record vocals for a key character.

"Wondering why we r (sic) all together?," he asked fans. "@Jon_Favreau is voicing a very cool & important alien character for #HanSolo".

"Flattered & fortunate I could pull him away from his #LionKing directing duties," Howard added, referring to the new live-action Disney remake Favreau is taking charge of.

No further details about his alien character have been revealed, but Solo: A Star Wars Story will explore the background of the titular character, who was made famous in the sci-fi franchise by Harrison Ford.

Alden Ehrenreich will play a young Solo in Howard's movie, alongside Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, as well as co-stars Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Paul Bettany, and Warwick Davis.

Howard took over as director last June (17), when original filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller exited the project due to creative differences, but Glover recently insisted "not a lot at all" had actually been changed from their original vision for the movie.

Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released in May (18).