Much controversy has been made over the past week about upcoming Han Solo film. While Rouge One was a good start to the Star Wars anthology brand, production so far on Solo has been a disaster. Most notably, 21 Jump Street directors Chris Miller and Phill Lord were fired with a mere few weekends left in production, replacing him with Ron Howard.
Now, even more controversy is brewing behind the scenes. According to some reports, Lucasfilm producers were not only concerned about the directors approach to the material, but also the performance they were getting out of star Alden Ehrenreich. Their level of concern reached the point where they decided to hire an acting coach midway through production to work with him.
Many Star Wars fans may continue to doubt Ehrenreich’s capabilities to pull of the Han Solo character, but he has proven himself to be a solid actor. Not only has he been solid in a lot of good movies like Blue Jasmine, but he’s also worked with some truly great directors in Woody Allen, The Cohen Brothers, and Warren Beatty. I don’t doubt his ability to pull of the performance.
What I do doubt however is the direction of this film, as it has the making for a potential disaster for Lucasfilm. Miller and Lord have proven to be incredibly witty and clever directors, so to mute their voices is troublesome to me. Ron Howard is a fairly uninspired choice to replace him, and I wonder how they are going to change so much footage around to fit their new narrative.
Despite the change, the Han Solo Star Wars Anthology Film is set to be released May 25th, 2018.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter