Solo: A Star Wars Story has had quite a rollercoaster ride of a production process. Back in 2015, The Lego Movie’s Phil Lord and Chris Miller were announced as directors of the film. Production kicked off two years later, and everything seemed to be on track for Han Solo’s origin story. As fate would have it, though, the duo stepped down from the project after serious clashes with Disney and Lucasfilm.
Following their dismissal, the studios scrambled to find a suitable replacement, and they landed with Ron Howard. Initially, it was reported that Howard was just coming in to tie things together and get the movie ready for release, but as we just learned, that may not have been the case.
Ron Howard May Have Completely Changed ‘Solo’
During Episode 89 of The Resistance Broadcast Podcast, host John Hoey, Bill Scheehy and James Baney, alongside special guest Germain Lussier from i09, discussed the HanSolo movie. According to the group, sources close to the production stated that Ron Howard had done a significant restructuring of the film to the point where he pretty much started from scratch:
“The reshoots ended up covering nearly all of ‘Han Solo,’ all of the film, and potentially up to twice the budget […] We’re hearing that [Howard] reshot potentially 80 percent or more of the movie.”As with any rumor, we should take this information with a tiny grain of salt, but Hoey has proven to be a reliable source with StarWarsNet in the past. On top of that, the tidbit does make sense if we think about it. Ron Howard boarded the project in June, and the end of production was announced in October, meaning he spent six months filming the movie. In comparison, Miller & Lord started production in January and were dismissed six months later, in June.
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That similar timeframe, paired with the reported character cuts, does make it plausible that Howard and Disney thought it best to start the project from scratch.
Whenever a blockbuster goes through heavy restructuring, the first question to pop up is whether it will be a mess. That’s honestly difficult to know at this point, especially if we take into account the conflict between Lucasfilm and PhilLord and ChrisMiller about tone. With that said, this news could mean a big challenge for Solo.
This Could Put A Lot Of Pressure On Solo’s Box Office Performance’
Ever since it was announced, people have been wondering whether Solo would live up to the financial legacy of the Star Wars franchise without Harrison Ford in the famous role. Still, seeing how the film is coming after financial and critical hits like The Force Awakens and Rogue One, we’ve been hoping for the best. Its budget was probably smaller than its predecessors, after all, so it didn’t need a $1 billion box office return to succeed. Now, though, that may no longer be the case.
Assuming the information from The Resistance Podcast is correct, and Disney and Lucasfilm had to invest two blockbuster-level budgets for Solo, the film has a ton of pressure riding on its shoulders. Recreating the expansive Star Wars universe isn’t cheap. Double that, and you’ve got quite an expensive project on your hands.
Is that a bad thing? It could be, but we’ll just have to wait and see how the film performs at the box office, and wait for some word on its new budget to make an accurate assessment.
Solo will fly into theaters on May 25, 2018.
