Few films in recent memory have experienced productions that have been quite as eventful as Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Star Wars spinoff went through a major shakeup last year with the loss of Phil Lord and Chris Miller as its directors, and reportedly went in a new direction when Ron Howard stepped in to replace them. It's unclear exactly how much the film changed as a result of the creative shift to a new director, but according to Howard: he played with numerous elements used by Lord and Miller and blended his vision with theirs. Howard addressed the film's creative issues in a recent interview, explaining,
If ever there was a completely honest version of creative differences, this is it. I didn't witness any of it. I came in, just picked up and went. I'm very grateful for much of the work [Lord and Miller] did. Yes, we took some of the sequences in different directions and experimented with them and there's a great deal of myself in the movie now. But their fingerprints are all over it in ways that I'm very grateful for.
We have already reported on the rumors that Ron Howard came in and reshot several of the exact same scenes that Lord and Miller shot during their time as the directors of Solo: A Star Wars Story. However, this seems to suggest that the purpose was to retool the style and tone of those scenes. Based on these remarks to Empire, it looks like Ron Howard's presence on the film was meant to rework existing story threads more than it was to overhaul the narrative and make something entirely new. Per the director, many of the same scenes will still pop up in the story, but Howard's version of them will be different than the ones filmed on the first go-around.
Despite Ron Howard's remarks about the creative differences experienced during the production of Solo: A Star Wars Story, it's also worth noting the amount of DNA that was seemingly retained from the Lord and Miller era of the film's production. As Howard explained, "their fingerprints are all over it," and now there are elements of Ron Howard's creative touch mixed in with aspects of the Lord and Miller creative touch. It's more of a blend than a total redo. It's also worth noting that Lord and Miller will also receive producing credits on Solo, and Lucasfilm isn't hiding the work that they did before departing the project.
Solo: A Star Wars Story tells the tale of Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) during the earlier years of his life before the events of A New Hope. Centering on the young Corellian smuggler trying to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld, Han will go on a journey that will see him meet young Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), mentor Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), his longtime friend Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and the mysterious Qi'Ra (Emilia Clarke). Along the way, we will watch him get his hands on the Millennium Falcon and his trusty blaster, and follow him as he becomes the anti-hero that we all know and love.
Audiences will finally get a chance to see what a standalone Han Solo movie looks like next month when Solo: A Star Wars Story debuts in theaters on May 25. Beyond that, the Star Wars franchise will continue next year with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX on December 20, 2019.
