You may have noticed yesterday that #MakeSolo2Happen was trending on Twitter and wondered what exactly was going on. Well, it all has to do with a fan campaign to get a sequel made to last year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Fans of the film took to social media to express their love for Solo, how deserving it is of a sequel and desire to see that happen. This outpouring of support was so prominent that even director Ron Howard noticed and took the time to respond:
Short and sweet. Ron Howard’s response on Twitter shows that the campaign to make Solo 2 happen spearheaded by Star Wars News Net’s Resistance Broadcast podcast has caught his attention And he can’t help but smile over this show of love for his movie. He doesn’t address whether or not he actually wants to make a sequel himself, but his smiley face response indicates that he supports the campaign and the idea of a sequel overall.
Following Solo: A Star Wars Story’s disappointing box office, Ron Howard said things that made it seem like he was disappointed that more people didn’t see the film in theaters that his cast and crew worked so hard on. He expressed a belief that if more people gave it a chance, they would find that they liked it. It was the kind of thing that made you feel bad for him, whether you liked Solo or not.
It can’t feel good to have audiences not respond to your work, especially if it's not even give it a chance. So this has to make the director proud, seeing that despite what the box office returns might tell you, people did see Solo and many that did really loved it. Solo connected with people in such a way that many are actively supporting the idea of it getting a sequel.
Unfortunately, while this is a cool thing and it’s nice for Ron Howard to get to see how much people loved his movie, the campaign’s hopes for success seem slim.
Ron Howard made the best of a bad situation, taking a production with many behind-the-scenes woes and made a watchable, entertaining movie out of it. Many of the things working against Solo, like marketing, release date and fan discontent over Star Wars: The Last Jedi, were not Solo’s fault, nor Ron Howard’s. It probably deserved a fairer shake. Nevertheless, Disney is a business and Solo underperformed.
A sequel to Solo: A Star Wars Story would presumably be way cheaper and have far fewer troubles, but Lucasfilm seems to be moving away from these kind of solo character stories. The future seems to be in fewer films, spread further apart and separate trilogies, versus the Marvel approach of character solo movies.
You can never say never though. Alden Ehrenreich was signed on for more than one movie and the upcoming Disney+ platform would theoretically open up another avenue for this story to continue. Although I still cringe over how Han got his last name, there are still dangling plot threads, like Qi’ra and Darth Maul from Solo: A Star Wars Story that I would be onboard to see explored in a sequel. There is clearly some fan interest, but is it enough?
The next film in a galaxy far, far away is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters on December 20. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all of this year’s biggest movies and let us know in the poll below if you want a sequel to Solo.
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