It was first announced back in the summer of 2015. Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, was writing the script along with his son Joe. And to direct it, they hired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of such hit comedies as 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie. They started filming almost a year ago under the code name Red Cup. Get it?
But then the poop hit the fan in June of 2017. With filming about 75% done, Lord and Miller were fired, under the age old reason of "creative differences." We've heard some of the stories as to what those creative differences were. It sounds like the main one had to do with tone. Given their comedic backgrounds, Lord and Miller were hired to bring a comedic touch to the film. But, Lord and Miller were allegedly directing it as an outright comedy. As they did in their comedies, Lord and Miller were encouraging a lot of improv from their actors, which led to a very grumpy Kasdan. Kasdan was soon hovering over them on the set, leading to a very grumpy Lord and Miller. So many grumpy people, someone had to go eventually. Fare thee well, Lord and Miller.
Given that situation, it was heavily rumoured that Kasdan would take over as director, but the various Hollywood unions actually have laws in place to prevent that. To finish off production, and to supervise reshoots, Star Wars boss Kathleen Kennedy brought it Hollywood legend Ron Howard. Howard had actually been circling Star Wars for a while, believe it or not. Howard is good friends with George Lucas, having started in Lucas's American Graffiti back in the day, and directed the Lucas written and produced Willow. A few years back, Howard even revealed that Lucas asked him to direct The Phantom Menace, but Howard declined, instead choosing to encourage Lucas to get back on that directing horse.
Howard took charge and the re-shoots grew longer...and longer...and longer. The longer reshoots went, the more people started worrying about how bad the film would be.
The fear kicked into overdrive back in November. With this being a May release, November is usually when they hype train starts. Gotta get the trailer in theatres to run in front of all those Christmas blockbusters. November came and went. No trailer. December came along. People were like, "Hey! In front of Last Jedi would be very appropriate!" But still, no trailer. January was coming to a close. Sheer panic was setting in among the fans. How bad is the film that it's five months from release and they won't let us see any footage from it yet?
Some mild relief finally came back on Thursday with the revelation that there would be a Super Bowl spot, followed by a full trailer the next day. Kicking off the hype for a May blockbuster at the start of February. Not unheard of, but no longer common.
When that Super Bowl spot aired, I got pretty jazzed. I mean, it's new Star Wars. I'll always get excited for new Star Wars. I was there opening day for the shitty Clone Wars animated movie, so I'll be there for Solo, no matter its productions woes.
Speaking of The Clone Wars, I'm digging that rock/electronic/Clone Wars-style music rockin' in that trailer. John Powell (The Jason Bourne movies and a bunch of DreamWorks animated films) is doing the score, with Star Wars composer emeritus John Williams providing the main theme.
Anyways, a day later, we get the full trailer. I'm sharing them both, because there's surprisingly very little recycling of footage.
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. I mean, it's Star Wars. We've got spaceships going fast, I love that shot of a the Star Destroyer emerging from the clouds. I'm liking what I'm seeing so far, but we're going to have to wait for when it comes out on May 25 to see if the whole thing comes together.
Alden Ehrenreich is our young Han Solo, Donald Glover of Community fame is young Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones is someone named Qi'ra, Woody Harrelson is Solo's mentor, and Joonas Suotamo begins taking over for Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca.
Solo: A Star Wars Story comes out May 25.
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