The Han Solo movie has had a bit of a troubled production to say the least. Things started fairly smoothly but issues arose at Lucasfilm and Disney surrounding directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. After reviewing footage that the directing duo shot, Disney realized that the movie didn’t match the tone they were hoping to achieve and was more akin to a comedy rather than a sci-fi action film.
After shooting for several months and only having three weeks of filming left, Disney stepped in and fired the two directors and brought in Academy Award winning director Ron Howard to help clean up the project. Howard stepped on set in June and only finished his “reshoots” in the middle of October, leading many to believe that he reshot a majority of the movie, if not all of it.
Rumors have been swirling around for quite a while suggesting that Howard reshot 80% of the movie but Disney hadn’t said a word. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Thandie Newton, a star of the upcoming Star Wars film, stated that the reshoots weren’t as extensive as we were lead to believe.
“Apart from the initial shock and feeling bad for [Lord and Miller] not being able to finish their work, their work is everywhere in it,” she said. “Ninety percent of my stuff is with them. And it certainly wasn’t about, ‘Oh we have to start again and do it all over.'”
Newton went on to talk about the behind the scenes scandal with the trio of directors and stated that the version Lord and Miller produced will be interwoven with Howard’s.
“I love Phil and Chris–everybody loves Phil and Chris–they’re so brilliant,” she said. “Ron and the guys were talking to each other. As far as I’m concerned what’s on screen, in the end, is going to be an amazing collaboration. It’s a massive piece. We see so often now there are two directors working on pictures. We already had two with Phil and Chris. Now there’s three.
“With a project like that where it’s a vision that’s been created over so many years, that’s so expansive, I think it’s less about things going wrong than getting more help to bring it into the best position it can be in. I really like Ron though, he’s very sweet. And [the film is] dope; it’s so cool!”
In reality, this may just be PR speak and damage control. It’s pretty hard to believe that they didn’t reshoot a massive amount of content if they were filming for roughly 5 months, which is about the length that Lord and Miller shot for. We’ll get to find out when Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters in May 2018.
