After a famously tortured production, we’re soon to find out whether Ron Howard saved Solo: A Star Wars Story. First indications will comes from its Cannes Film Festival premiere, after which we’ll start hearing concrete details about the pic’s quality and whether Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo can live up to Harrison Ford’s.
But could the movie do well enough to spawn a Solo franchise? After all, Ehrenreich recently confirmed he’d signed a contract giving him the opportunity to reprise the role in future films. Well, we can’t say for certain right now, but Howard was asked about the prospect of direct sequels in an interview with Fandango and gave a rather cagey reply:
“I think the fans are going to define all of that. I mean I think that Lucasfilm and Disney in casting actors, and particularly younger actors, want to see what happens and build upon that. Certainly, they want the commitment from the young actors, but there are no concrete plans. I think there’s been a lot of creative energy and now marketing energy going behind this movie.”
Hmm, well you don’t need to be Albert Einstein to work out that if lots of people go to see a movie the chances of it getting a sequel are higher. In all honesty, this is a surprisingly low key and straightforward response from the director, who seems to be hinting that even if there is a Solo sequel he won’t be back behind the camera for it.
Following this, Howard was asked whether he thought the Anthology films should even have follow-ups, or just be standalone stories in the Star Wars universe, and here’s what he said:
“I think these are exactly what they’re meant to be, or what they’re designed to be. They’re single movies exploring the galaxy; but of course, as a company, I think they’re going to be very interested to see how people respond to it and take it from there. This whole thing is kind of a cool, ambitious exploration of what the galaxy and the Star Wars sensibility can continue to mean to fans.”
I’m of the opinion that Disney is perilously close to devaluing the idea of a Star Wars event movie if they’re going to keep up their annual release schedule. Sure, the last couple have been great, but there’s a serious chance of audience fatigue if we hit the mid 2020s and we’ve had 7 or 8 movies in as many years. Even releasing Solo so hot on the heels of The Last Jedi feels a bit cheap.
As usual, though, the proof is in the pudding, and in Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s case, the pudding is set to be served worldwide on May 25th.
