Of all the Star Wars movies that have been released so far, there’s only one that failed to turn a profit. 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, released just five months after The Last Jedi, earned a decent amount of positive critical reception (it certainly doesn’t deserve any hate), but only ended up around $393 million worldwide. Besides chronicling the origin story of Alden Ehrenreich’s younger Han, Solo is known for the behind the scenes shakeups that led to Ron Howard taking over directing the flick from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Howard recently reflected on his period of his professional life, describing what happened as “a shame.”
While one director being hired to replace another who drops out ahead of principal photography is hardly uncommon, Solo’s switchover from Lord and Miller to Howard occurred after the Star Wars movie had been rolling cameras for six months. In an interview with Vulture, Howard recalled how Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy arranged for him to have breakfast with Solo producer Alli Shearmur and co-writer Jon Kasdan, which led to the following:
