In a shocking turn of events, the directors attached to the next movie in the Star Wars anthology series, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller, have left the Han Solo film. Or they were asked to leave. There’s a clashing of information on the subject. Either way, the duo known for their work with 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie have moved on from the Star Wars universe for good…. Or at least for now.
The unexpected exit of the two comes after months of bickering about how the film should be filmed. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller wanted the creative control to make the movie they had imagined, but Lucasfilm President and Producer of the film, Kathleen Kennedy, has had different plans for the galaxy’s favorite smuggler. Apparently, the directing duo’s shooting style and the way they worked with their actors wasn’t what Kennedy wanted.
This conflict is a classic case of “creative differences” within Hollywood. How is that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were hired to do the job without knowing what was expected of them? That’s what confuses me. If Kennedy was clear with them on how she wanted the Han Solo movie to be made, and they agreed, then obviously something went wrong somewhere in the middle of filming. The fact that most sources claim they were fired by Kennedy suggests that they didn’t carry out the plan she had set out for them.
Although this may be the case, I feel like Kennedy could’ve given Lord and Miller some ground to work with. They are both great directors and have proven themselves with big studios time after time. Dropping the duo and expecting their shoes to be filled with a director of better, or of similar, quality to them is a lot to hope for. What has happened is a big issue in Hollywood: those in charge of production (people like Kennedy) have a vision for a film ingrained into their heads and aren’t willing to negotiate even an inch. There hasn’t been any word whether this was the case, or if the duo were given some room to work with but wanted more. It’s an unfortunate turn of events either way. And a lesson on the suppressing politics running behind the scenes of Hollywood.
Han Solo‘s next adventure is set to still release on May 25, 2018. It stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke. The studio plans on having reshoots for the movie by the end of the summer, that way production can get started well before the end of the year. As for who’ll be taking over as director, that is a mystery we still do not know. Ron Howard is in talks to take over, but nothing has been confirmed as of now.
