The road has certainly not been easy for Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film's original directors, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, were fired over creative differences with just a few weeks of filming left to go. The movie was left rudderless until Ron Howard soon came on board as the replacement and even though the first trailer for Solo finally debuted, the conversation is still largely dominated by the bumpy production. The whole situation is complex and while moviegoers will surely wonder how much of the film belongs to whom, Howard does not think that it should matter. Here's what he said:
I don't really want to explain it. I don't really want to be specific about that because, again, I don't even want that to matter to fans. I could understand why you'd ask, and some might even be curious, but look, everybody who has been involved in this has done nothing but love what this movie could be, and that's been the vibe around it. I think audiences are gonna feel that love and excitement.
At the moment, there are a lot of questions as to how much of Solo was directed by Ron Howard versus Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Lord and Miller only had a few weeks of filming left before they were fired, and Howard was brought on to handle the leftovers and some reshoots. However, these reshoots appear to have been more extensive than originally reported, with the first images and footage for Solo only arriving four months before the blockbuster is set to release. There's even uncertainty as to how to officially credit the movie, but Howard would rather fans just sit back and enjoy the movie, then worry about who directed what.
When asked by Entertainment Weekly what percentage of Solo he directed, Ron Howard answered that he didn't really want to explain it. Howard understands why people would be curious -- this isn't exactly a regular situation -- but ultimately, who directed what particular scene shouldn't hamper the enjoyment of the movie.
Howard is certainly not wrong for not wanting to explicitly label what portions of Solo are his and which aren't. It's probably not as simple as that and it only draws more attention to the whole situation. However, the curiosity over the direction of Solo is not likely to go away and it will probably continue to be a topic of conversation well past the movies theatrical release. Even if Solo is amazing, the question will shift from who's to blame to who's to credit.
Hopefully, Solo: A Star Wars Story makes it out of this situation unscathed. The blockbuster prequel finally arrives in theaters on May 25, 2018.
