Out of the four Disney-produced Star Wars movies to have hit theaters since the Mouse House acquired Lucasfilm, Solo: A Star Wars Story seriously underwhelmed at the box office.
A weak worldwide total ($392M) – well, weak for this particular franchise, at least – coupled with mixed reviews, led many to question whether the Anthology pic was even necessary to begin with – harsh, but not unjust – and now, in an interesting interview, director Ron Howard has reflected on what went wrong.
Among other things, the filmmaker pointed to internet trolls as one of the reasons Solo didn’t take off like it should’ve, saying the following on the Happy Sad Confused podcast:
“So whatever millions (Solo) made worldwide, those were the core fans, but it didn’t hit that zeitgeist point, for whatever reason. Timing, young Han Solo, pushback from the previous movie, which I kept hearing was maybe something. And some trolling, definitely some trolling. Some actual aggressive… It was pretty interesting. Not so much, a little bit the Twitter feed, yes, but it was especially noticeable prior to the release of the movie. Several of the algorithms, whether it was Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, there was an inordinate push down on the ‘want to see’ and on the fan voting. And when you look at it, it’s like 3, 4, 5 — or whatever the rating is, I forget what the rating is on Rotten Tomatoes, whether it’s a scale of 1-5 or 1-10 — but pretty high, and then a series of 0s or .5s or 1s.”
Continuing on, Howard explained how he felt badly about how the film performed, and noted that he thought Alden Ehrenreich did a terrific job in the lead role.
“Under that circumstance, I didn’t take it personally at all, but I felt badly. And I thought Alden did a really great job, an incredibly talented guy, and dedicated guy, and I had a blast with everybody. And look, a year later, it’s kind of interesting, you wouldn’t think you’d participate in a Star Wars project and have it be a cult movie, but I can already tell those who have affection for it are pretty adamant in their feelings, and that’s nice.”
Howard makes some good points, and frankly, here at We Got This Covered we felt that there was a lot to like about Solo. Unfortunately, though, it seems unlikely that Disney would ever consider releasing a sequel. Especially since Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy has openly admitted that they made a mistake with the pic.
That being said, fans clamoring for more may be in luck, as we’ve heard that what would’ve been Solo 2 could end up as a mini-series on Disney Plus. If that’s the case, hopefully it’ll include more from Darth Maul, after his exciting cameo at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
What do you make of Howard’s comments, though? Indeed, do you think that trolls hurt the film’s box office chances, and do you still hope to see a sequel? As always, let us know down below.
