Untitled Han Solo origin story loses its directors
Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 1:55PM 
Robert here! The Star Wars franchise has been enjoying a commercial and critically successful third wind with the release of new trilogy starting The Force Awakens and standalone, universe expanding film Rogue One. While the next installment of the main nonilogy of films, The Last Jedi, is slated to be released in December, the next standalone film, an origin story for series favorite character Han Solo, has hit a major snarl as directing team Phil Lord and Chris Miller have just announced that they are departing the project.
More after the jump...
According to reports the duo left the project citing creative differences with producer Kathleen Kennedy and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan. The movie began filming in February and still has several weeks of scheduled reshoots left to finish over the summer. Reports have been surfacing throughout the shoot of tensions between the pair and Kennedy and Kasdan, but the news of their official departure from the project is pretty shocking, especially with the film so far into production. At the moment Ron Howard is rumored to be stepping into the role, but no official announcement has been made.
The recent crop of Star Wars films have provided lots of fodder for industry gossips. Most recently Rogue One was plagued by rumors that the films extensive reshoots were due to quality issues with the film. For all the drama, Rogue One was a critical and commercial success.
With the news so fresh off the presses it will be hard to say what the departure of Lord and Miller means for the final product of Han Solo's big solo moment. The movie is stacked with a cast of incredible actors, including Alden Ehrenreich in the Harrison Ford created lead role, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Donald Glover, and the Khaleesi herself Emilia Clarke. Additionally, Lawrence Kasdan and Kathleen Kennedy both have long histories of successful productions. So all is not necessarily lost, but it's certainly going to be an interesting run for the infamous smuggler.
Are you excited for Han Solo's solo outing or does this news upset you?
Reader Comments (11)
Why do these franchises even go through the charade of hiring directors with distinctive points of view when they're really not interested in their points of view? Just hire Paul W. Anderson or some other competent director that will get them the film they want and not rock the boat.
Perhaps this is more a sign of the corporate "universe" franchises. When you look at Marvel and Star Wars, who is really in charge of the end product. It feels like the buck truly stops with Feige and Kennedy and not the directors. So this is bound to happen when the "auteur" is the producer, in a sense. The director is now like a screenwriter, brought in for what's needed but discarded for punch ups down the line. Not saying it's good, just saying this is probably just the most overt example of something that is always going on in this type of modern movie making.
Ron Howard directing the Han Solo film....? AW HELL NAW!!!!
Pretty much the only interest I have in this movie is how it will help grow Phoebe Waller-Bridge's career.
Ron Howard makes total sense. A completely inconsequential filmmaker who can easily do whatever Kennedy asks.
Emilia Clarke is NOT an incredible actor. Quite the opposite actually.
Whenever a director gets the boot mid-way through, it's a troublesome sign. With that said Ron Howard taking the reigns wouldn't be terrible: he can make a good film. What was that racing one with Daniel Bruhl and Chris Hemsworth? That was quite good.
Ron Howard does comedy well and his forray into space (Apollo 13) was pretty great so his inclusion may not be the film's downfall. Plus; this is Star Wars people when you deal with a galaxy far far away you bring your A game.
Ron Howard is a competent artisan but in no way as good as the Miller-Lord duo, who have still yet to fail. This reminds me of the Edgar Wright -> Peyton Reed event and "Ant Man" ended being a really good and fun film. So this one may be good, after all, but not as brilliant as it could have been.
Perfect justice would be Lord/Miller moving to a Spaceballs-style spoof for the new Star Wars cinemaverse.
I've liked Miller and Lord's work. I really loved Clone High, and a Clone High in space would be enormous fun.
I have to admit though, that when I first read about the firing, my first thought was that the two guys didn't think they actually had to listen to the woman producer, and if they just ignored her long enough, it would all go away.
Re Phoebe Waller Bridge: she's going to be the show runner for a TV series starring Sandra Oh. Is there still room for me to hop on the Waller Bridge bandwagon?
I really don't want Ron Howard touching this franchise. The majority of his films fall into the gooey/sticky/cornball arena. And who wants to see Clint Howard in a Star Wars film?