The sequel is dead in the water, but ‘Solo’ defenders are still out there fighting the lost cause

In 2022 you sense Lucasfilm would like to pretend Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t happen. The spinoff was a production nightmare, generated hundreds of thousands of words of bad press for the Mouse House and Lucasfilm, received tepid reviews and, most importantly, was a surprise box office disappointment.

Disney and Lucasfilm slammed the brakes on Star Wars spinoff movies Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi (both of which would eventually emerge on Disney Plus) and shelved their foolhardy plans to release a new Star Wars film each year.

Despite all that the film still has its champions – though its low box office means many of them must have finally caught it on streaming rather than in theaters. The campaign for a Solo 2 appears to have petered out, but some threads on r/StarWars argue that the film is underrated. A post dubs it “as Star Wars as Star Wars gets” and that it’s full of “great world-building”. Another says that it’s far better than the sequel trilogy, which ended up as a massive disappointment

The replies are mixed. Some agree that Solo isn’t necessarily awful, just that it’s a bit underwhelming and unexceptional. That’s pretty much our position, too. After Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired, and Ron Howard became the director, it feels like the order was to turn out a by-the-books movie as efficiently as possible. If that’s the case, then mission: accomplished.

In 2022 Solo is now firmly on the “where are they now” pile. Star Alden Ehrenreich isn’t going to reprise the role, and few original characters in it (if any) have gone on to appear in other movies and TV shows. Even the juicy dangling plot thread of Darth Maul’s return seems to have been completely abandoned. Oh well, maybe that’s for the best.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is available to stream on Disney Plus.