That is a really good point.
Though I honestly feel a stronger marketing campaign could have done a better job at selling the film to general audiences. Not only was the marketing WAY too short, but I think a more targeted approach could have helped people got on board with the idea of Alden as Han. Possibly they could have shown more brief clips of him playing Han, maybe a trailer with a different angle, per se. We need to sell people on this new kid as Han, so let’s make a trailer that shows off a little more Han. Or even something as simple as having Alden on more talk shows to allow people to get to like Alden as a person. Can’t you picture him playing a party game with Jimmy Fallon?
I also think he would’ve been a great person to host SNL. They had Donald Glover host around the same time (not only to promote Solo, but also his own show and music, since “This is America” dropped the same night. But honestly people already like Donald Glover a lot. Alden has shown he has the comedy chops with his brief appearance in *Hail, Caesar!”, and if the film had been pushed back to allow more time for this kind of promotion, I think the film performance would have improved.
EDIT: This might not make sense, but one thing that comes to mind is that the trailers didn’t tally present us with any stakes, or a hook to make us find out what is going to happen.
They sort of didn’t need that for TFA, honestly. People were going to see it regardless. The Last Jedi trailer teased Rey possibly turning to the dark side. Rogue One set the stakes up with this band of ragtag rebels going against the odds to save the galaxy against this weapon of mass destruction. What about Solo?
All we knew was that Han got a job with a big time gangster. I wonder if the trailer has hinted at the threat Dryden Vos and Crimson Dawn presented, that if they failed they could be killed, people would’ve been more interesting in seeing what would happen. Obviously we know Han won’t die, but it still works with James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Indiana Jones.
Another trailer could’ve done a better job at teasing Han and Qi’ra’s relationship, which is personally one of my favorite aspects of the whole film. Teasing a nice star-crossed romance could’ve also helped sell the movie to certain female audiences who might be less interested in the action, but would be interested in another love story with Emilia Clarke (who has established herself in Game of Thrones and Me Before You). Anyway, just some thoughts.