That doesn’t sound like the most authentic Star Wars experience to get Alden Ehrenreich ready to play Han Solo, but it makes plenty of sense.
The folks behind Solo: A Star Wars Story needed to keep everything related to the film a secret, which meant not revealing anything about the nature of the scenes, the character designs, or the overarching story.
To hammer that idea home, the Hail, Caesar! auditioned with a dog puppet to stand in for Chewie, and according to the actor’s remarks to BBC Radio 1: the doll apparently did a pretty good job.