All the effort it took to bring Solo: A Star Wars Story to the big screen really doesn’t seem to have been worth it in the long run. After original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired following disagreements with Kathleen Kennedy, which has since turned out to be par for the course on the franchise, Ron Howard stepped in with just weeks left of shooting in an attempt to salvage the sci-fi blockbuster.
However, when Solo finally hit theaters, it landed with a thud, becoming the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie in history after failing to even crack $400 million at the global box office, which effectively brought an end to Lucasfilm’s experiment of alternating the main saga with anthology movies to deliver a new installment in the franchise annually. Since then, though, Solo has found something of a second life as a fan favorite, and there’ve even been several online campaigns mounted in the hopes of raising interest for a sequel.
It seemed unlikely that Disney would be willing to risk another financial hit on a sequel to something that didn’t make them any money in the first place, but there were also hopes that either the story or some of the supporting characters could still play a big role on Disney Plus, with many speculating that the future of Star Wars lay on the small screen after the divisive reactions to both The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
Unfortunately, though, in a recent exchange with a fan on Twitter, Solo co-writer Jon Kasdan dashed any hopes for continuing the adventures of Alden Ehrenreich’s youthful take on the sci-fi icon, admitting that the studio would be unlikely to show any interest in following up a notorious box office failure.
Don't think anyone's pursuing a Solo sequel at the moment @KenobiJj I think a feature, at this point, would be a tough sell & the D+ Star Wars slate is really…pretty packed, all shows I'm lookin forward to. My work on Indy is long over but I'm excited there's forward movement!
— Jon Kasdan (@JonKasdan) March 30, 2020
The Mandalorian seems to be the focus for the Star Wars franchise for now, even though release dates for movies have already been staked out in the coming years, and with a raft of new characters and spinoffs reported to be coming from Jon Favreau’s creation in the next couple of years, a Solo sequel is likely towards the bottom of both Disney and Lucasfilm’s list of priorities right now.
