Behind-the-scenes drama hardly uncommon when shooting a movie, but Solo: A Star Wars Story's was particularly notable, as last summer, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller exited the movie due to creative differences with Lucasfilm. Ron Howard was then hired as their replacement and oversaw the rest of principal photography and the extended reshoots. While Howard did implement a few changes upon boarding Solo, there have been conflicting reports about just how much the movie changed under Howard's supervision. Now one person supposedly associated with the Solo shoot claims that Howard ended up shooting his scenes using the exact same script that Lord and Miller used.
According to an actor who spoke anonymously with Vulture about Solo: A Star Wars Story's troubled production, when Ron Howard came aboard, there weren't any changes made to the script. Howard reportedly shot "scene for scene do-overs" of what Phil Lord and Chris Miller had shot during their time on the project. Assuming this unconfirmed information is correct, that means dialogue-wise, Solo will closely resemble or be an exact duplicate of the Lord and Miller version of the movie. This is in sharp contrast with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's reshoots, which saw Tony Gilroy penning new dialogue and directing entirely new sequences for the first Star Wars spinoff movie. This actor also stated that Howard only used parts of the same Solo sets that Lord and Miller used.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller departed Solo: A Star Wars Story last June, approximately 75% of the way through principal photography. Publicly, both the duo and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy have attributed the directorial shakeup to conflicting creative visions. But according to reports that came out shortly after the news of Lord and Miller's exit broke, specific issues during their time on Solo included them filming the movie as more of a comedy and butting heads with screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. This unidentified actor also claims that it took Lord and Miller would usually demand more than 30 takes of a scene, whereas Ron Howard only asked for two or three. Nevertheless, if this individual is to be believed, it sounds like Lord and Miller's influence will still be felt through the script, which lines up with what Donald Glover said about Ron Howard not really altering the vision for the movie.
Of course, even if this claim about the Solo: A Star Wars Story script not being changed is true, don't think that means Ron Howard didn't put his own spin on the movie. Perhaps the biggest change that came under Howard's tenure was recasting the character Dryden Vos. Although Michael K. Williams has completed all his scenes as the "half human, half mountain lion" when Lord and Miller were directing, Williams was unable to make Howard's reshoots due to scheduling conflicts with another project. As a result, Howard brought Paul Bettany in to take over as Dryden Vos, who was turned into a full human.
Solo: A Star Wars Story blasts its way into theaters on May 25, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller are being credited as executive producers for their work on the movie. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates about the Star Wars franchise, and be sure to look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out this year.
