It’s the story about “Solo: A Star Wars Story” that everyone has been waiting to hear: what really happened that led to the film’s original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller leaving the movie? Perhaps even more crucially, how much of the material they shot is left in the movie versus the footage that Ron Howard came in and film? Both questions have hazy answers, and for the latter, we’re not going to know where Lord and Miller’s work ends and Howard’s begins.
“As Han says, ‘Don’t tell me the percentages.’ Never tell me the percentages,” Howard told EW. “I don’t really want to explain it. I don’t really want to be specific about that because, again, I don’t even want that to matter to fans. I could understand why you’d ask, and some might even be curious, but look, everybody who has been involved in this has done nothing but love what this movie could be, and that’s been the vibe around it. I think audiences are gonna feel that love and excitement.”
Throughout the piece, everyone involved with the film sensitively talks around the Lord/Miller exit. Kathleen Kennedy certainly doesn’t want to pour cold water on the pair, but admits things simply weren’t working out. As was widely reported, the pair were going off script and improvising, to such a degree that Lucasfilm were concerned about getting they filmed they signed up for, delivered on time.
“I think these guys are hilarious, but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy and when you are making these movies you can do that and there’s plenty of room for improvisation, we do that all the time, but it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can’t get the work done and you can’t move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready. So, it literally came down to process. Just getting it done,” she explained. “There comes a point where there’s only so much you can do and then you have to take a different course and that’s where we ended up.”
“These are really great guys and you know, nobody wanted this to happen. It was just one of those unfortunate things,” she added.
As for Howard, ‘Solo’ conveniently landed in his lap when he was between gigs. However, he promises that some of Lord and Miller’s spirit remains in the picture.
“It’s disappointing that any company ever feels like they have to make a change like that,” he said. “It’s rough on everybody and disappointing for everybody, and I’ve just tried to come in and — of course, Phil and Chris’s fingerprints are all over the movie, given how much they put into it and the time they put into it. I hope fans won’t even think about how the movie was made. They should just lose themselves in it.”
Through all this upheaval, none other than George Lucas came to visit his old pal Howard on the set. Lucas has directed the filmmaker in “American Graffiti,” and Howard directed the Lucasfilm effort “Willow” back in 1988. And even though Lucas is technically not involved with the new iteration of “Star Wars” movies, he couldn’t help but give his input.
“There’s even one little moment in a scene that — I can’t tell you what, sorry — but in the scene on the Millennium Falcon where George said, ‘Why doesn’t Han just do this,’ ” Kennedy shared. “It actually is a funny little bit that will probably get a laugh. And Ron happened to be by the monitor and not inside the Falcon and he goes, ‘Oh that’s a great idea,’ and ran in and said, ‘George wants us to do this.’ So that was pretty cool. I think George felt pretty great about that. He could revisit these characters, and I think he felt so comfortable, obviously with Ron being there, that it was just fun for him.”
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” opens on May 25th.