The newest Star Wars movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, hasn't had the most conventional development and production process. Just 11 months ago, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired by Lucasfilm, with Oscar-winner Ron Howard later coming aboard to take over. In a new interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Howard discusses coming onto the project so late in the process and what it means to him to work on a franchise as large, established, and popular as Star Wars.
Starting off, Howard confirmed that what he heard was that Lord and Miller clashed with Lucasfilm over the direction of Solo. He said the two parties had "creative differences." Howard added that it's never ideal when a top-level change like this is made during production, but he sounded optimistic about the film's prospects all the same.
Asked about his first day on set, Howard said it was "chaotic," and that he was feeling both anxious and "pumped up" at the same time. His first scene behind the camera was a "big action" sequence involving Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and Lando (Donald Glover), and he felt "really good" about how the day went. But when did he finally feel like he was in the galaxy far, far away? "Let me just tell you; 'When you get a fist bump and a full-body hug from Chewbacca; it's an experience I wish ever movie-maker could have. I realised [then] that I was in the galaxy far away but it was going to be OK."
Howard never worked in the Star Wars universe before Solo, but he did star in Star Wars creator George Lucas' 1973 Oscar nominated movie American Graffiti alongside Harrison Ford. Also in the interview, Howard talks about how he was bewildered by Lucas' ideas for the original Star Wars, which was released in 1977. Check out the full interview in the embed above.
Solo opens on May 25. It's expected to have a record-breaking opening weekend. Advance tickets are on sale now, and early signs show they are pacing ahead of Black Panther's.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs on CBS, the parent company of GameSpot.
