Former ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Directors Address Their “Break-Up” With Lucasfilm
It’s still the biggest geek news item of the year: original directorsChris MillerandPhil Lordwere fired fromSolo: A Star Wars Storyandreplaced with Ron Howard. The news that Lucasfilm has a heavy hand inStar Warsis noting new – Kathleen Kennedy reportedly clashed with J.J. Abrams duringStar Wars: The Force Awakensand Gareth Edwards’sRogue One: A Star Wars Storyunderwent significant reshoots. But Lord and Miller were the reason many people were excited for a Han Solo spin-off. Their reputation as miracle workers preceded them.
After months of silence, the duo behindThe LEGO Movieand21 Jump Streethave finally addressed the Max Rebo in the room. Here’s more on the Lord and MillerSolofiring, straight from Lord and Miller themselves.
Lord and Miller were in attendance at a panel dedicated to their late, great animated seriesClone Highat the Vulture Festival in Los Angeles over the weekend. Naturally, the Q&A drifted toward the Han Solo movie,leading the duo to speak publicly on the subject for the first time. While there are surely bitter feelings lurking beneath the surface, Lord took a positive and upbeat approach to the whole thing:
The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful. We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. I think in terms of us leaving the project, I think everybody went in with really good intentions and our approach to making the movie was different than theirs. That was a really big gap to bridge, and it proved to be too big. Sometimes people break up, and it’s really sad, and it’s really disappointing, but it happens and we learned a lot from our collaborators and we’re better filmmakers for it. We’re really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best.
Miller also chimed in and was quick to point out that they’re not in dire circumstances or anything. They’re working on the sequel toThe LEGO Movieand theystill have that animatedSpider-Manmovie in the pipeline:
We’re super well-adjusted, obviously we’re doing great. We’re super drunk right now. As Phil said, we had such a great relationship with cast and crew, we were really rooting for them. After we took a much-needed vacation, we got back into it and now we’re writing and producing a sequel toThe Lego Movieand producing a Miles Morales animated Spider-Man.
Someday, and it may take decades and a tell-all book, we’ll know exactly what went down between these undeniably talented filmmakers and Lucasfilm. If you put your ear to the ground in the right places, you’ll already hear all kinds of stories, none of which are fit or fair to print at the moment. The silver lining here is that Lucasfilm is probably getting the movie they want courtesy of an experienced director and that Lord and Miller are going to bounce back because they’re too talented tonotbounce back. It’s a crappy situation, but it certainly looks like the healing process has begun. At least in public.
