Lord And Miller Say Han Solo Experience Made Them ‘Better Filmmakers’

Fired Solo: A Star Wars Story directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller open up about their troubled experience working on the film saying that despite all the drama that went down, it made them better filmmakers. It’s not like a film centering on Han Solo that does not star Harrison Ford (Alden Ehrenreich will play the younger version of the character) does not come with immense pressure as it is. Many fans were skeptical about the idea since it was announced by Lucasfilm, especially since the character’s death was still very fresh from Star Wars: The Force Awakens when the project was first announced, but people eventually learned to come to terms with it, confidently knowing that the young team will be at the help considering their prolific resume.

So when the shocking news broke out that the duo was leaving production less than a month before it’s supposed to wrap up, fans were once again frantic about Solo. Numerous reports of the reason why Lucasfilm decided to part ways with the young filmmakers started to emerge and let’s just say that it sounded less amicable than how the company spun it initially. In the days following Solo‘s director chair vacant, veteran director Ron Howard was roped in to finish the project, but even that is a can full of worms in itself.

Now that principal photography is done and the film is just several months away from debuting, Lord and Miller break their silence on the very public kerfuffle. The team recently appeared at the MTV animated series Clone High at the Vulture Festival in L.A where they hosted their own panel. During their stage stint, they were obviously quizzed about what went down with the Star Wars standalone. Here’s what Lord has to say:

“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, backed-up his partner’s statement, adding that despite what they have gone through, they are actually “super well adjusted” and that they wish nothing but the best for the project:

“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 to The Lego Movie and producing a Miles Morales animated Spider-Man.”

Unfortunately, it is safe to say that we will never see Lord and Miller’s cut of Solo. Despite Howard supposedly only doing reshoots, word has it that the movie is basically a brand new film with the director reshooting almost everything for twice the budget. All we will ever have are rumors about what the duo’s original vision of the project was which did not match with what Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan wanted for Han Solo’s prequel film as it was becoming a bit too comedic even for a snappy character as everyone’s favorite space smuggler

Despite losing the gig, Lord and Miller have a long line of projects that they now devote their time to. On top The Lego Movie sequel and the animated Spider-Man series, they are also working on a slew of projects on various levels of involvement such as the upcoming Making History and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series, as well as, Unkitty!. Solo: A Star Wars Story, on the other hand, is moving forward and is currently in post-production with just six months to go before showtime.

KEY RELEASE DATES
Star Wars 8/Star Wars: The Last Jedi release date: Dec 15, 2017
Solo: A Star Wars Story release date: May 25, 2018
Star Wars 9 / Star Wars: Episode IX release date: Dec 20, 2019