'Han Solo' Spinoff In Trouble [Podcast]

Welcome to another edition of The Playlist Podcast, a discussion about film news and other film and television related items.

On this episode, I’m joined by Playlist Editor-in-Chief Rodrigo Perez to discuss two different news items that have connections to the larger studio discussions that we have been having on this podcast so far this year. We talked on a previous episode about Paramount needing a massive hit, and while “Transformers: The Last Knight” has amassed $268.26 million worldwide since its Wednesday launch, only $69 million of that sum is domestic. That’s a far cry from the typical nine-digit domestic openings this franchise has seen. We discuss how this film will still do fine thanks to large overseas grosses, but we ponder just how long these giant robot smackdowns can continue to be made at this low of quality before they start losing money.

We then pivot to the topic that has been on every trade’s lips since the news broke last week, the firing of Phil Lord and Chris Miller on the “Han Solo” spinoff. Veteran director Ron Howard has stepped in to steer this ship to the finish line, but more news had broke during the time of this recording, including more insights into the wedge that divided Lord/Miller and Kathleen Kennedy. It’s a move that is still as shocking as when the news first dropped, so we decided to share some more thoughts on the matter.

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