Unfortunately, for Disney and Lucasfilm, the story surrounding “Solo: A Star Wars Story” will always be the behind-the-scenes drama. Once Lucasfilm fired directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, fans began to question what exactly was going on with this Han Solo origin film. Well, one of the people who knows exactly what was going on is writer Lawrence Kasdan.
Kasdan has been integral to the “Star Wars” universe for decades now, writing “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi,” and ‘The Force Awakens.’ And he also has his hands all over ‘Solo,’ and if you believe rumors, Kasdan might have been one of the factors that led to the change in directors.
In a recent interview with Empire Magazine (via CBM), the writer opened up (a bit), about the drama behind the scenes. “These movies are so gigantic, it is a little hard to identify exactly what moving part changes when there is a change of direction,” Kasdan said. “But this movie had to go in a different direction. I’m a great believer that whatever preconceptions you have going into a movie, whatever resistance you might have, whatever excitement you may have because you’re going to see a familiar character, all bets are off about three minutes into the movie.”
While the director’s chair had a new person midway through production, there was perfect synergy in the writing. For the first time, Kasdan teamed up with his son, Jon, to pen the script for ‘Solo.’ “When I agreed to do ‘Solo,’ I said ‘I can’t do this without Jon,’” said the elder Kasdan, in an interview with The Star Wars Show. “I did want to write with Jon for years, but of course, there is that wariness. Can a father and a son?…It can be ragged, but the good times — which were most of the times — were amazing.”
The younger Kasdan, Jon, explained that he was happy to do the film with his dad and was trying to get involved in the “Star Wars” universe for a while now. Jon was eager to get working on ‘Solo,’ but had no interest in a simple origin story.
“It wasn’t like we ever approached it like, ‘ok we’re going to fill in the backstory or origin story of Han Solo.’ We had Han Solo and we’re going to make a great crime film around him,” said Jon Kasdan.
We’re finally approaching the release date of May 25, so that we can decide for ourselves if ‘Solo’ is a great crime film, and if the behind-the-scenes machinations had any noticeable effect on the finished product.
In the meantime, check out the clip from The Star Wars Show below, as well as two new international posters for the film. We particularly are digging the Japanese poster.
