MOVIE NEWS – One of the biggest “what ifs?” of Disney‘s Star Wars legacy is fans wondering what Solo: A Star Wars Story would have looked like had original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller stuck with the project. With Ron Howard taking over as director during the production, fans have speculated for years about how different the original movie was from what we ultimately got, and while the critical reviews were leaning positive, Solo remains the saga’s lowest-earning live-action movie. While Lord and Miller understandably wish they could have completed their vision for the movie, they don’t consider their time on the project a total loss, as it connected them to future collaborators.
While speaking with MovieWeb about their upcoming sci-fi spectacle Project Hail Mary, Lord expressed the impact their time on Solo had on developing their new picture: “Well, we use a lot of similar crew people, a lot of costume department, Neil Scanlon, who helped design Rocky, a lot of the folks in our sound department, so there are really a lot of teammates that we worked with on that. So, certainly brought a lot of experience to this.”
Miller continued that thought, noting how there’s something to be learned from every project they work on: “And then anytime you make a movie, you’re learning, you’re learning new things. And we learned a lot on that one, and we just keep learning about everything that we do.”
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012, the studio confirmed that sequels to the original trilogy were on the way, while also teasing that standalone projects that didn’t center on the Skywalker family were also in the works. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story would focus on the crew that secured the plans to the Death Star, and it was also revealed that filmmaker Josh Trank was working on a Boba Fett movie. With how little fans knew about these parts of Star Wars lore, there was initial excitement. The announcement of a Han Solo prequel, on the other hand, didn’t result in the same enthusiasm, given how iconic Harrison Ford‘s tenure as the smuggler is.
However, Lord and Miller, who had delivered the wildly entertaining The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street, seemed like promising candidates, as did stars Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Emilia Clarke, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Then, just a few weeks before principal photography wrapped, the pair announced their departure. This marked the beginning of what would become a concerning trend at Lucasfilm, where filmmakers are announced on projects, only for those plans to fizzle. Trank’s Boba Fett film dissolved, Colin Trevorrow exited Star Wars: Episode IX after being announced, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson‘s announced trilogy has been shelved, Patty Jenkins‘ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron evaporated, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss parted ways from the studio, and the list goes on.
From the start, Solo felt like it was fighting an uphill battle, and despite the inherent potential of the attached cast and crew, it only earned a lukewarm reception. Luckily, even though it’s taken eight years, fans will finally get to see how Lord and Miller’s sci-fi sensibilities pan out with Project Hail Mary.
Source: MovieWeb
