Almost a decade after they were dismissed from “Solo: A Star Wars Story” partway through production, filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller say they’ve made peace with what happened.
The “Project Hail Mary” and “The LEGO Movie” filmmakers were hired to direct the film and were deep into production on it with several months of filming completed. That’s when Lucasfilm removed them due to creative differences.
At the time, it was reported to be due to the differing approaches to filmmaking – producer Kathleen Kennedy, co-writer and executive producer Lawrence Kasdan, and others from her Lucasfilm team hold a tight leash over the franchise and its creative decisions.
Lord & Miller, on the other hand, are noted for a more improvisational style. Ultimately, Ron Howard took over the picture when they exited. Appearing on a recent episode of The Town podcast, the pair says they never wished the production ill, even after their exit with Lord saying:
“No, because, you know, that’s our crew. That’s our cast. Those are the people we cast. What we said to the crew was, ‘If you want to do something to support us, make a great movie with Ron.’ I always look forward. I never look back.”
The filmmakers revealed that Kennedy reached out to them earlier this year to congratulate them on the success of “Project Hail Mary”. They also hold the original trilogy in reverence:
“Those films are independent films. They started that way, and they have that spirit. And the other thing is that they’re spiritual, and not to forget, they should be funny.”
As for whether they would ever return to the franchise, the pair said “Never say never.” The pair are currently working on “Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse” opening in cinemas next year.
