Ron Howard, the director of Solo: a Star Wars Story, has offered his opinion on why the film didn’t meet box office expectations.
Whenever a new Star Wars film arrives at cinemas, the expectation that the film will perform in a huge way is very evident. So when a film like Solo: A Star Wars Story doesn’t come close to those expectations, there are going to be questions asked.
What does director Ron Howard think went wrong? Well, Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via LRM), Howard said it might be to do with the film’s plot: “Maybe it’s the idea that it’s too nostalgic. That going back and revisiting an origin story for a beloved character may not be what the fans were looking for. It seemed to me looking at the opening, big but not as big as the others, I think that was [only] the hardcore fans. [The drop-off] tells you how many people are tagalongs who need to wait to see what people think or if it’s essential, if it’s a zeitgeist movie or not. It didn’t hit the zeitgeist, for whatever reason.”
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Whatever was the real cause of Solo‘s failings, Lucasfilm seems to have learned from the episode and has cut back the amount of Star Wars films they are making and only bringing the biggest Star Wars event pictures to the big screen, saving smaller stories for Disney+.
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, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Rio Durant, Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as Dryden Vos and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) as Weazel.
Originally published June 5, 2019. Updated June 6, 2019.
