The One Big Thing Ron Howard Didn't Change About 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'

The story of how Han Solo became the charming rogue everyone loved in the original Star Wars wasn’t rewritten when Ron Howard took over directorial duties from Chris Miller and Phil Lord. According to a new secret interview published on Monday, the script for Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t change at all. All the scenes just had to be reshot with a cockier vibe.

According to Vulture an unnamed actor who claims to have worked on Solo dished the dirt on the behind-the-scenes drama on the film. According to this Star Wars version of Deepthroat, Ron Howard’s directorial tenure on Solo has nothing to do with rewrites of the Lawrence Kasdan/Jon Kasdan script. “It’s exactly the same script,” the source said. “They’re filming exactly the same things.” And according to some chatter in Los Angeles, that script is actually pretty damn good. On Monday, long-time sci-fi critic and journalist Mark A. Altman tweeted that the film is “apparently quite good.” This is notable only because Altman is a tough critic. To be clear, he hasn’t seen it yet himself, the relevant thing here is that the insider buzz around Solo is starting to turn positive.

The Vulture source also said that Howard was a lot more confident and professional than Miller and Lord, specifically pointing out that Howard would spend very little time on multiple takes, whereas Miller and Lord would do several. Still, this comment means very little when we consider the context. Howard had to finish re-shooting Solo quickly. His ability to do scenes in quick takes might not have anything to do with confidence. It might just have been the only way he could get everything done. As to why Howard was hired in the first place, the source indicates Miller and Lord were simply too slow.

For their part, Miller and Lord have diplomatically taken an “executive producer” credit for Solo, and are being pretty cool about their firing from the film, at least publicly. “We were really proud of the many contributions we made to that film,” Miller said on March 23.

Whether or not Solo ends up being any good, is still any one’s guess. But for now, it seems that the original story for the film will remain intact.

From the Kessel Run to a big game with starship-sized stakes, to Han and Chewie meeting for the first time, Solo has to cover a lot of ground. But, if these new reports are to be believed, that will come more down to style than substance. - Solo: A Star Wars Story is out everywhere on May 25, 2018.