Originally published February 11, 2018. Updated December 2, 2022.
As part of its Solo: A Star Wars Story coverage, Entertainment Weekly has been chatting to director Ron Howard about his work on the Anthology movie, with Howard revealing that his old pal George Lucas paid a visit to the set, and actually ended up contributing to a scene.
“George is like a big brother mentor in my life,” said Howard, who starred in Lucas’ American Graffiti, and also directed Willow for Lucasfilm. “He came by to visit the first day that I picked up shooting. George and his wife, Melody, came by to pay a little set visit. It made me feel great. He told me just trust my instincts, you know? I know he kind of fundamentally feels like, first and foremost, [these films are] sort of for 12-year-old boys, and yet even he knows that it’s grown so far beyond that, and the fans have grown with the series in a great, important way. So he didn’t offer a lot of advice except, ‘You’ll get this.’”
Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy went on to discuss Lucas’ set visit, and revealed that he actually helped to direct part of a key scene:
“He had intended to just kind of stop by and say hi, and he stayed five hours,” said Kennedy . “There’s even one little moment in a scene that — I can’t tell you what, sorry — but in the scene on the Millennium Falcon where George said, ‘Why doesn’t Han just do this.’ “It actually is a funny little bit that will probably get a laugh. And Ron happened to be by the monitor and not inside the Falcon and he goes, ‘Oh that’s a great idea,’ and ran in and said, ‘George wants us to do this.’ So that was pretty cool. I think George felt pretty great about that. He could revisit these characters, and I think he felt so comfortable, obviously with Ron being there, that it was just fun for him.”
SEE ALSO: Ron Howard was reluctant to replace Phil Lord and Chris Miller on Solo: A Star Wars Story
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Tobias Beckett, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-37, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi’ra, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, Ian Kenny (Sing Street) as Rebolt, Harley Durst (Wonder Woman) as Moloch, Tien Hoang (Now You See Me 2) as Moloch’s henchman and Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) in as-yet-unrevealed roles. It is set for release on May 25th 2018.
