Solo: A Star Wars Story

• 1. Introduction

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  Solo: A Star Wars Story premiered in Los Angeles on the 10th of May 2018. It carried a budget of nearly $300 million, one of the largest ever committed to a single film. The film tells the origin story of Han Solo and Chewbacca, set ten years before the 1977 film that introduced them. Alden Ehrenreich stars as the young smuggler, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany. Ron Howard directed the film from a script by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan.

  Reviews were mostly positive, with critics praising the cast and the action sequences. Despite that, Solo became the first Star Wars film to be a box-office bomb, grossing $393 million worldwide. How did a film with this pedigree, and this budget, end up there? And what happened behind the scenes before Ron Howard's name ever appeared in the credits?

• 2. Two Orphans From Corellia

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  On the planet Corellia, Han and Qi'ra grow up as orphans dodging a gang led by the serpent-like Lady Proxima. They bribe an Imperial officer with stolen coaxium, a valuable starship fuel, hoping to buy passage off the planet. Qi'ra is captured before she can board, and Han vows to return for her. He joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet and is given the surname Solo.

  Three years later, Han is serving as an infantryman on the planet Mimban, having been expelled from the Imperial Flight Academy for insubordination. He tries to blackmail his way into a gang of impostor Imperial soldiers led by Tobias Beckett. Beckett instead has him arrested and thrown into a pit to be fed to a Wookiee prisoner named Chewbacca. Han understands Chewbacca's language, and the two escape together. Beckett recruits them both for a coaxium heist on Vandor-1.

  The Vandor job collapses when Enfys Nest's Cloud Riders, a band of space pirates, hijack the shipment. The coaxium is destroyed, and Beckett's partner Val and their crewman Rio are killed in the chaos. Beckett admits he was stealing the coaxium to pay off Dryden Vos, a boss in the Crimson Dawn syndicate. Han and Chewbacca volunteer for a second heist to help clear the debt. Aboard Dryden's yacht, Han finds Qi'ra again, now serving as Dryden's top lieutenant.

  Qi'ra brings the crew to Lando Calrissian, a smuggler she hopes will lend them his ship, the Millennium Falcon. Han wins the vessel from him in a card game; Lando cheats but joins the mission anyway for a cut of the profits. Their target is unrefined coaxium in the mines of Kessel, where Lando's droid co-pilot L3-37 sparks a slave revolt. L3 takes fatal damage during the escape, and Lando is wounded. Han flies the badly damaged Falcon through the uncharted Kessel Run, using L3's uploaded navigational data to dodge an Imperial blockade. The ship lands on the planet Savareen to process the stolen fuel.

  On Savareen, Enfys Nest reveals that her Cloud Riders are rebels fighting the crime syndicates and the Empire. Han grows sympathetic to her cause. Dryden Vos dies at Qi'ra's hand after Beckett betrays him, steals the coaxium, and takes Chewbacca hostage. Han shoots Beckett dead when he confronts him, in a scene the writers designed to echo Han's shooting of Greedo in the original 1977 film. Qi'ra leaves to answer a summons from Dryden's superior, Maul, on the planet Dathomir. Han and Chewbacca hand the coaxium to Enfys, who invites Han to join the rebellion; he declines and takes a vial of coaxium instead. Before setting off, Han challenges Lando to a rematch for the Falcon. This time he wins, after stealing back the hidden card Lando used to cheat the first game. Han and Chewbacca then leave for Tatooine, chasing a job from a crime lord Beckett once mentioned.

• 3. The Director Who Got Fired

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  In 2012, George Lucas began developing a Han Solo prequel and commissioned Lawrence Kasdan to write the screenplay. That same year, Lucas sold Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company. Kasdan was then pulled away to help write The Force Awakens, released in 2015, leaving his son Jonathan to finish the Solo script. Principal photography began in January 2017 at Pinewood Studios, with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directing.

  On the 20th of June 2017, citing creative differences, Lucasfilm announced that Lord and Miller had left the project. Reports said producer Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan had disagreed with the pair's shooting style. Lord and Miller believed they had been hired to make a comedy, while Lucasfilm wanted the film to carry only a comedic touch. Lucasfilm also felt the directors were encouraging too much improvisation, pulling the story away from the Kasdans' script.

  To satisfy Kasdan, who wanted certain scenes filmed word for word, Lord and Miller shot takes exactly as written before adding takes of their own. The two directors also resisted requests to reshoot scenes from more angles, which limited editing options later. Original editor Chris Dickens was removed from the production and replaced by Pietro Scalia.

  Ron Howard, who had acted alongside Lucas in American Graffiti in 1973 and directed Willow in 1988, stepped in as the new director. He had once turned down an offer to direct Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Howard took over the remaining three and a half weeks of principal photography and five weeks of reshoots. By the time filming wrapped, he had reshot around 70 percent of the film.

  During the reshoots, actor Michael K. Williams could not return to the production due to a scheduling conflict, and his part was recast with Paul Bettany. Williams had been playing a half-human, half-animal creature; the role was reworked into a scarred, near-human alien for Bettany. Lord and Miller ultimately agreed not to contest directing credit, accepting executive producer credits instead, and gave Howard feedback after seeing an early cut. Post-production wrapped on the 22nd of April 2018. Bettany had worked with Howard before, on other films. He said only two weeks passed between reaching out to the director and boarding a flight to London to join Star Wars.

• 4. Thousands Auditioned For Solo

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  Christopher Miller, one of the film's original directors, called the search for a new Han Solo one of the hardest casting challenges of all time. More than 3,000 people auditioned for the part, he said. Early candidates considered in January 2016 included Emory Cohen, Scott Eastwood, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Blake Jenner, Logan Lerman, Jack Reynor, and Miles Teller. By March, the list had narrowed to a shortlist of Taron Egerton, Alden Ehrenreich, and Reynor.

  Ehrenreich was reported cast in May 2016 and confirmed two months later at Star Wars Celebration Europe. Harrison Ford, who originated the role decades earlier, met with Ehrenreich to offer insight and advice before filming began. Ehrenreich later described the character as more of an idealist than the Han audiences already knew. He said Han's dreams meet realities that are harder and more challenging than expected.

  Emilia Clarke was cast as Qi'ra the following month. Before her, Adria Arjona, Kiersey Clemons, Jessica Henwick, Zoe Kravitz, Naomi Scott, and Tessa Thompson had all been considered for the role. Clarke described Qi'ra as someone whose glamor hides a few rough roads, fighting simply to stay alive.

  Donald Glover was cast as a young Lando Calrissian around the same time, beating out finalist Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for the role. Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando in the original trilogy, met with Glover to pass along guidance of his own.

  Woody Harrelson entered negotiations for the role of Beckett in early January 2017, after Christian Bale had earlier been considered. Harrelson kept the character's name secret for months. Fans speculated he might be playing a Legends character named Garris Shrike, but he revealed the name Beckett in March 2017. The role of Beckett, a criminal who becomes Han's mentor, was based on Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

  Phoebe Waller-Bridge joined the cast in February 2017. Lucasfilm withheld her role at first, describing only a CGI-driven performance similar to Alan Tudyk's K-2SO from Rogue One. She would go on to voice Lando's droid navigator, L3-37, whose creation blended practical costuming with visual effects.

• 5. Fish Tanks And Firecrackers

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  Visual effects supervisor Rob Bredow called the film's train heist sequence one of the toughest challenges of his career. He wanted an explosion that felt different from the Death Star blasts he had grown up watching, created decades earlier by Joe Viskocil. To get it, Bredow's team built a 3D model of a mountain and detonated it with firecrackers inside a large fish tank constructed at Pinewood Studios. The idea was inspired by a YouTube video from The Slow Mo Guys. In it, creators Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy exploded firecrackers inside a fish tank.

  Around 60 different designs of the Millennium Falcon were developed before the filmmakers settled on the final version seen on screen. The design team drew on 1970s muscle-car culture and concept art originally sketched for the 1977 film. Lead designer James Clyne added an escape pod to the front of the ship. It answered a question he had wondered about the Falcon's design since he was a boy.

  Rear-projection effects, which combine live performances with pre-filmed backgrounds, were used for scenes inside the Falcon's cockpit. This updated a technique from the original trilogy and let actors see a visual reference while filming. Phil Tippett created stop-motion animation for the film's holochess scene, including two creatures that never made it into the 1977 movie.

  The visual effects were handled by Industrial Light & Magic alongside Hybride and Blind LTD, with additional work from studios including Jellyfish Pictures and Lola VFX. That combined effort would go on to earn the film a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards.

• 6. Two Composers One Theme

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  John Powell was announced as the film's main composer in July 2017, beginning work on the score in late 2017 after finishing Ferdinand. Longtime Star Wars composer John Williams wrote and conducted a separate theme for the young smuggler, titled The Adventures of Han. In December 2017, Williams combined two musical pieces to create the finished theme.

  The following month, Williams recorded demos with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles at the Newman Scoring Stage. Powell wove that new theme into his own score. He also incorporated older Williams compositions, including the Star Wars main title and motifs from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Phantom Menace.

  Walt Disney Records released the soundtrack album on the 25th of May 2018. In September 2020, Powell announced a deluxe edition, remixed and mastered by 5 Cat Studios, containing unedited cues and additional Williams demos. The deluxe edition arrived on the 20th of November 2020, adding roughly 40 minutes of previously unreleased music. Mondo announced a vinyl pressing of the score for January 2021, including a limited hyperspace-colored edition.

• 7. Star Wars Fatigue

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  A sneak-peek television spot aired during Super Bowl LII on the 4th of February 2018. It became the most-watched Super Bowl trailer on YouTube, drawing 8 million views, plus another 5.9 million on Facebook. The first official teaser followed the next day, but Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter called it dull, unfavorably comparing its look to Rogue One.

  In early March 2018, French artist Hachim Bahous accused Disney of copying album covers he had designed for Sony Music's Legacy Recordings label in France. He said the covers matched character posters made for the film. Disney said the posters had been produced by an outside vendor and that it was investigating the claim.

  Solo premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on the 10th of May 2018 and screened at the Cannes Film Festival five days later. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus called it "a flawed yet fun and fast-paced space adventure" for newcomers and longtime fans alike. On Metacritic, the film carried a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 from 54 critics, described as generally favorable. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an A-minus, and 89 percent of PostTrak respondents rated it positively.

  Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, praising the cast while faulting a story he felt played it too safe. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that the film keeps its irreverent impulses in careful check. Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter praised the cast but said the picture followed a safely predictable course. He felt it missed the visual surprises delivered by The Last Jedi or Rogue One.

  Critics singled out Donald Glover's performance as Lando Calrissian for particular praise. USA Today wrote that Glover outshone and outswaggered the title character. TheWrap compared him to Cary Grant, saying he swept the film off its feet. Time's Stephanie Zacharek highlighted what she called his unruly, charismatic elegance.

  Solo opened in 4,381 theaters across the United States and Canada, the ninth-highest theater count ever for a film at that point. It made just $84.4 million over its opening weekend, the lowest Star Wars debut since Attack of the Clones in 2002. Analysts at Deadline Hollywood, The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, and CNN described the shortfall as Star Wars fatigue. Solo was the fourth film in the franchise released in just 29 months, arriving five months after The Last Jedi.

  The film's takings fell 65 percent in its second weekend and another 46 percent in its third. That was the worst sophomore decline for a Star Wars film since the original trilogy. Solo needed to gross roughly $600 million worldwide to break even, a target it fell well short of. Deadline Hollywood later calculated that the film cost the studio $76.9 million once every expense and revenue was tallied. Forbes revised that figure in 2024 to a $65 million production loss, then to $103.3 million a year later.

  Ron Howard responded on social media in June 2018, writing that he was proud of the film and sorry more fans hadn't turned out to see it. The following year, he partly blamed online trolls for the film's disappointing box-office run. That disappointment would shape every conversation about a possible sequel in the years that followed.

• 8. Life After The Bomb

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  A novelization titled Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition, written by Mur Lafferty, was published by Del Rey Books on the 4th of September 2018. It included scenes cut from the film, such as Chewbacca sampling Lando's outrageously expensive bathroom products. An epilogue showed Enfys Nest delivering coaxium to Saw Gerrera and Jyn Erso. Marvel Comics also published a seven-issue comic adaptation starting in October 2018, written by Robbie Thompson and drawn by Will Sliney.

  Alden Ehrenreich's contract extended to cover two additional films, leaving the door open for a sequel or a supporting role in future anthology titles. He said he would want any follow-up to stand alone, in the style of the Indiana Jones films, rather than continue directly from Solo. Emilia Clarke also signed on to reprise Qi'ra in any future installments.

  On the 20th of June 2018, Collider reported that all future anthology films were on hold because of Solo's disappointing performance. Lucasfilm denied the claim as inaccurate the next day and confirmed several unannounced films were still in development. Bob Iger later said new Star Wars films would pause after 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, though none were cancelled.

  On the 23rd of May 2019, hosts of the podcast The Resistance Broadcast launched a fan campaign under the hashtag MakeSolo2Happen. The push reached people who had worked on the film, including Ron Howard, and writer Jon Kasdan tweeted an image of three crime-syndicate logos in response. Kasdan later said any sequel he wrote would include the bounty hunter Bossk, mentioned in Solo and previously seen in The Empire Strikes Back.

  Fans revived the hashtag on the film's second anniversary, the 25th of May 2020, arguing Solo deserved more credit than it received. Comic Book Resources writer Rita Dorsch argued that Qi'ra's arc was the most interesting part of the film and should anchor any follow-up. CinemaBlend's Dirk Libbey suggested fans were unlikely to get a theatrical sequel, but might welcome a Disney+ series centered on Qi'ra's criminal organization instead.

  In December 2020, Disney+ announced a Lando limited series with a story by Justin Simien. Kathleen Kennedy confirmed in 2022 that discussions with Glover about reprising the role were still ongoing. By September 2023, plans had shifted toward a feature film instead of a series, before the Writers Guild of America strike halted work altogether.