Ron Howard on Solo sequel, the Kessel Run & Harrison Ford’s reaction

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

SPOILERS for SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, so if you haven't seen the STAR WARS spin-off for yourself just yet, steer clear. Unfortunately, SOLO isn't exactly breaking box-office records nor is it completely enamoring critics, but folks still seem to be having a good time with the Ron Howard film, and the director recently spoke with Empire to spill a few details about the spin-off.

Although it seems that SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is intentionally setting up further sequels, Ron Howard says that isn't the case, at least not at the moment. The director told Empire that there's "no concrete plan" for another Han Solo film, saying "It's been kind of a constant process of asking the questions – how might this have happened? How might have Han Solo been affected? What are the events that might have shaped his life? I think it does continue to beg questions. The fans seem enthusiastic, and so maybe there's going to be interest in exploring those." Although a SOLO sequel may not be a certainty, Howard believes that a Lando Calrissian film could happen. "He's so entertaining, that's a real possibility," Howard said. "All of this is in discussion, but it all depends on project-by-project development." While we await word on whether Solo's adventures will continue, Ron Howard teases that Crimson Dawn, one of the five major crime syndicates in the STAR WARS universe, could factor into further STAR WARS movies.

Potentially one would think it might be kind of interesting to see what a war amongst the Syndicates looks like. There's nothing concrete there, but that's interesting territory. In what movie and through which character's perspective that might emerge… I think everybody feels like that's rich territory to explore in the movie universe.

One of the stand-out sequences in the film dealt with Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) making the Kessel Run with the Millennium Falcon in 12 parsecs, something we first heard the smuggler boast about almost forty years ago. It's also one sequence which went through quite a few changes when Ron Howard came onboard to replace Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. The biggest addition Howard made was the giant creature (called a summa-verminoth) found within the Maelstrom. "The monster wasn't around when I arrived," Howard revealed. "It was a new addition. There were a lot of the elements of the Kessel Run that were scripted and already previs-ed and so forth, but there was a lot of ongoing evolution of the story. Even using the Coaxium as a factor in the ultimate escape was something that just evolved through this incredible process […] I was in and out of the Falcon three times shooting new versions to facilitate new fun ideas that we were getting about the sequence. Directorially I just had a blast […] I didn't expect to have so much fun working on the action set-pieces." The use of the Millennium Falcon's escape pod also changed, with Howard saying that it originally "had more to do with the TIE fighters and it happened earlier, scraping along the carbon-bergs and things like that."

Despite some not loving SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY as much as Lucasfilm had intended, one person who did love the film was Harrison Ford, whose uncharacteristic gushing surprising Ron Howard. "Man oh man, when Harrison Ford called me and said, 'I saw the movie and it's really great'… I mean Harrison is never effusive. He can be complimentary, he can be kind, he can be all those things, he's never effusive, he was so pumped up," Howard said. "He was so happy and he said, 'Alden did exactly what he had to do – he made it his own, but he really understood the spirit of the character, and I'm really happy for him.'"

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY is now playing in theaters.