There are many, many issues that fans point to in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but one of the biggest complaints about the movies is their incessant need to try and tie up every goddamn loose thread within the fictional universe. George Lucas approached the idea of a "prequel" at its most extreme definition, cramming the titles with so many explanations and origins that it got to the point where they were answering questions nobody was actually asking. Thankfully, it doesn’t looks like we can expect much of that in the future of the series, as Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has assured us all that we won’t be seeing more of that kind of storytelling.
Kennedy recently sat down for an interview with Entertainment Weekly, and it was while discussing the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars Anthology movie that she explained the approach to prequels in the franchise going forward. Discussing the idea that there are some things about the rogue smuggler’s past that fans really don’t want to know, the producer/executive explained,
There’s got to be a reason for [the stand-alone film] to be. And obviously the thing that Star Wars has always done so well is it doesn’t spend a lot of time [explaining] the stories that have come before. We don’t want to do that either. We don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.
It seems as though Kathleen Kennedy isn’t in the camp that thinks the explanation about the source of a Jedi’s power being Midi-chlorians is a very stupid over-share, but it’s still nice that the approach to the Han Solo movie is moving away from this kind of material. I don’t need to know why he started wearing his famous black vest, and I don’t even need to see how he managed to make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. What I would like to see is just a cool story about a young Han in the years before he met Luke, Leia and Obi-wan.
In the specific case of the Han Solo movie, we can be happy that the project is in the hands of people who really do seem to know what they are doing. Obviously Kathleen Kennedy is a big part of it, and Lawrence Kasdan – the guy who wrote The Empire Strikes Back is working on the screenplay. The real confidence booster, however, is the fact that Phil Lord and Chris Miller are on-board as directors. With the 21 Jump Street movies, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and The LEGO Movie, they have proven that they definitely know how to entertain a movie-going audience – and we’re excited to see what they can do with their own chapter in the Star Wars universe.
The Han Solo Anthology film is scheduled to hit theaters on May 25, 2018, though the next prequel in the Star Wars franchise, Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One, will be in theaters on December 16, 2016.
