In recent years, Lucasfilm has hit its fair share of bumps in the road, though the biggest might have been Solo: A Star Wars Story. The news that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller would direct was met with open arms from fans, though the studio didn't feel the same way, especially when the filmmakers began to veer away from what was on the page.
The directors were later fired and replaced with Ron Howard, and he was left with the difficult task of attempting to finish their movie in time for a release date Lucasfilm wasn't backing down from. The result was a spinoff met with okay reviews and a disappointing $393.2 million at the box office.
"There’s a lot I really love about Solo," Howard told THR (via SFFGazette.com) during a recent interview, "and yet it didn’t hit the zeitgeist when it came to the market. Damn."
"I understood that this difference had created a schism to the point where they weren’t going to be able to go on working together, and that was really unfortunate because I like Phil and Chris, and I also really admire them," he said of being tasked with finishing off the movie. "When I looked at the footage and read the script, which I liked, I felt like I understood what it was that the studio and Lucasfilm were looking for in finishing the movie and reshooting some of the movie."
"In a few places, I thought of reconceiving a few scenes, which they were open to. I had some really comforting conversations with Phil and Chris, who let me know that they weren’t leaving because I was coming in. For me, it was an absolute exercise in professionalism and friendship, and it indirectly led to a season of Willow, which we’re doing now [with] Jonathan Kasdan."
Solo wasn't actually a bad movie, and there's an awful lot to like about it. The decision to end with a cliffhanger doesn't seem like the smartest move in hindsight, because those box office receipts didn't exactly justify a sequel. However, we have seen Qi'ra recently return in Marvel Comics' Star Wars series, while Donald Glover is still expected to star in that live-action Lando series on Disney+.
Would you like to see Howard return to tell more stories set in this Galaxy Far, Far Away?