Lord and Miller’s Solo – WTF Happened to this Unmade Movie?

It’s safe to say that since Disney bought the rights to Star Wars from Lucasfilm, the road toward producing a series of Star Wars films that would appeal to generations old and young has been bumpy. Tales of behind-the-scenes turmoil plagued Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but the most infamous project remains Lord and Miller’s Solo. The film, which was to be a Han Solo origin tale, was to be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, two talented directors famed for their 21 Jump Street reboots and their creative animated films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and The Lego Movie. Lifelong Star Wars fans, they seemed like the ideal choices to helm the film, but the two were shockingly fired from the movie after four and a half months of shooting.

Why were Lord and Miller fired from Solo? The rumour was that their version of the film was too light, with them departing from the script by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan. There were also concerns about lead Alden Ehrenreich’s performance, with him having the unenviable task of replacing Harrison Ford as the title character. Whatever the case, Lucasfilm and Disney were nervous enough that Lord and Miller were unceremoniously dismissed and replaced by Ron Howard. A legendary director in his own right, who memorably made Willow for Lucasfilm, Howard came into the project with a few strikes against him, as folks resented a Hollywood establishment figure taking over for two young up-and-comers. Howard did his best to make a good Star Wars movie, but the film was a notable flop in the end. The worldwide gross was good, but with reshoots factored in, the film cost so much money it ended up losing tens of millions. To add insult to injury, Lord and Miller went on to be involved with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which earned raves as an instant classic. Who knows how good (or bad) their version of Solo might have been?

In this episode of WTF Happened to this Unmade Movie, which is written by Brian Accardo, edited by Paul Cooper, and narrated by Bronwyn Kelly, we take a deep dive into what went wrong on Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Do you think the Lord and Miller Solo would have been better? Sound off in the comments!