Actor Alden Ehrenreich, currently starring in Peacock’s adaptation of the sci-fi classic “Brave New World,” has called out members of the press over the handling of their reporting on the box-office of Disney and Lucasfilm’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.
The film was the second of the planned ‘A Star Wars Story’ spin-offs following “Rogue One” which, along with the two main episodic entries before “Solo,” pulled in over a billion each. “Solo” on the other hand closed out its run in 2018 with jus $393.2 million.
That’s a steep drop made worse due to the film’s infamous production which saw much of it reshoot with Ron Howard taking over as director from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. That resulted in a budget blowout that made the overall film cost nearly $300 million to produce.
Ehrenreich, from whom “Solo” was a “three-year experience, all said and done,” tells Total Film (via Games Radar) that:
“[Solo] didn’t do as well as other Star Wars movies, but it still did well for a movie. And so it was kind of this medium thing. But that’s not newsworthy. Even at high-level journalism, there’s an intense pressure, sometimes, it feels like, to [either] catastrophize or celebrate. And I think that’s really f—ing dangerous, especially when it pertains to the stuff that really matters, like the state of the world.
An article headline that says “things are complicated, and there are good sides and bad sides” isn’t getting the emotional response. And I just think we really have to take a step back, and give a lot more thought to the way our emotions are being run by the stories we’re getting inundated with.”
Reviews at the time of release for the movie were mixed, though reaction seems to have improved a bit since then. Ehrenreich signed on to play Han Solo for three films, though it is unclear if we’ll see any sequels or a potential Disney+ spin-off series in the future though Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian has been rumored this year.
The “Star Wars” franchise will be back in cinemas very soon though with the original “The Empire Strikes Back” set to open in North American theaters next week in honor of its 40th anniversary.
