Is anyone really desperate to see Solo: A Star Wars Story?
This week marks the release of a new Star Wars movie, focusing on arguably the most loved character in the history of the franchise – swashbuckling cosmic bad-boy Han Solo. Everything about Solo: A Star Wars Story suggests it should be steaming into cinemas on the back of a roaring hype train, but that’s not so. Compared with the rabid fan anticipation that preceded The Force Awakens in 2015 and last year’s divisive The Last Jedi, the publicity build-up to Solo is muted, like Chewbacca with a sore throat.
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This is almost certainly, in part, a side effect of trepidation. Solo has been a deeply troubled movie throughout its production, with rumours of on-set turmoil. Original filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, best known for The Lego Movie, were ousted from their director’s chairs in June 2017, having spent six months shooting. Ron Howard was brought in to ease the film over the finishing line and reports suggest he reshot much of the material. There were also concerns about Alden Ehrenreich’s portrayal of Han Solo. Lucasfilm hired an acting coach to improve Ehrenreich’s performance, bringing it more in line with Harrison Ford’s take on the character.
Personnel changes and a turbulent behind-the-scenes story have cast gloom over the production. It immediately recalls the situation with Ant-Man, from which Edgar Wright stepped aside in 2014, more than a decade after he first wrote a treatment. He was replaced by Peyton Reed and, when the film was released, a narrative quickly emerged, with scant evidence, that all of the good things about the movie were the work of Wright, while all its bland Marvel cliches were down to Reed.
Watch the trailer for Solo: A Stars Wars Story
With Solo, the distaste runs deeper. Star Wars fans object to this movie on principle. Much of the controversy around The Last Jedi revolved around Rian Johnson’s willingness to kill his darlings and make bold alterations to the lore of the series. In a similar way, fans consider Ford’s portrayal of the roguish outlaw sacrosanct. To trade in Ford’s craggy visage for a younger model is the equivalent of giving the Millennium Falcon a trendy new paint job and an obtrusive rear spoiler.
Then there’s the issue of franchise fatigue. Solo arrives fewer than six months after The Last Jedi and is the fourth Star Wars movie in as many years, after a 10-year wait before The Force Awakens. The novelty and goodwill that helped The Force Awakens and, to an extent first spin-off Rogue One, has mostly faded to nothing – especially among fans who considered The Last Jedi sacrilege.
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There is no appetite for a new Star Wars film so soon – particularly given the demographic make-up of the franchise’s fans. The age of the original Star Wars tales means this series skews older than current superhero adventures. While the core teenage audience for the Marvel Cinematic Universe think nothing of watching three or four near-identical movies every year, that’s not true for their parents. For them, Solo: A Star Wars Story is not an event. In that sense, Solo’s position is awkward. The film is too fraught with potential disgrace to appeal to its younger audience, who have followed its chaotic production online, and its early release could be seen as overkill by older fans.
Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Photograph: Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm
Since the Disney incarnation of Star Wars arrived in 2015, films from the franchise have benefited greatly from a release during the festive season – away from everything other than stray Harry Potter spin-offs and, in 2017, the surprise juggernaut of The Greatest Showman. There’s no such clear space for Solo, positioned at the heart of summer blockbuster season – a month after Avengers: Infinity War and just over a week after Deadpool 2. Blockbuster-fatigued moviegoers, who have recently shelled out for two big movies, are not necessarily likely to open their wallets yet again for a project that has a whiff of car-crash about it.
Solo will most likely be a decent-sized box-office success, and early reviews suggest reports of its creative death have been exaggerated. But there is a feeling that something has been lost. The release of a new Star Wars movie has long held a certain magic, as if the galaxy far, far away is the last place that retains the sheen of pure, unfiltered event cinema. With Solo, that sheen is beginning to dull, as another of Ford’s most iconic movies would say, like tears in rain.