It has been announced that Ron Howard (‘A Beautiful Mind,’ ‘In the Heart of the Sea,’ ‘Backdraft’) will take over directing duties on Disney and Lucasfilm’s ‘Star Wars’ spinoff that centres on fan-favourite Han Solo.
Howard replaces Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who parted ways with the standalone due to “creative differences” earlier this week. According to Variety, the filmmaking duos shooting style and process of interacting with actors and crew clashed with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s vision for the project.
“At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began forty years ago. With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film,” said Kennedy in a statement. “We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew, and the absolute commitment to make a great movie. Filming will resume the 10th of July.”
“I’m beyond grateful to add my voice to the Star Wars Universe after being a fan since 5/25/77,” Howard tweeted. “I hope to honour the great work already done & help deliver on the promise of a Han Solo film.”
The next movie in Lucasfilm and Disney’s series of standalone “Anthology” films, the untitled film picks up with Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) when he was 18 years old and takes him through when he was 24. Along the way, we will discover how Solo came to own the Millennium Falcon as well as how he met his Wookie sidekick, Chewbacca – played here by Finnish basketball player and actor Joonas Suotamo.