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Lucasfilm Has Learned The Wrong Lesson From Solo: A Star Wars Story

With Star Wars Celebration later this month and a whole lot of Star Wars on streaming coming soon, it was only a matter of time before we got a massive feature from one of the trades, and Vanity Fair came through. We got a ton of information about the various shows that are coming out this year and next and a few updates on the movies. However, a few details show that Lucasfilm might be learning the wrong lessons from their failures. There was a segment in the article about how it was such a production to bring back Luke in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and the topic of Solo: A Star Wars Story came up. The second spin-off Star Wars movie is infamously known as the "flop" Star Wars movie and underperformed at the box office. There were a lot of factors that went into Solo underperforming, but it seems that Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm have zeroed in on recasting Han Solo with Alden Ehrenreich.

Solo's swagger may be too singular for another actor to replicate. "There should be moments along the way when you learn things," says Kennedy. "Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can't do that."

Star Wars: Alden Ehrenreich Talks How He Returns As Solo
Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Image courtesy of Lucasfilm

That is just learning the wrong lesson from why this movie failed and isn't promising for Lucasfilm. Solo: A Star Wars Story flopped, by 2018 box office standards, because it was released five months after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars movies have never run on the "a movie every four months" the same way that Marvel has. Fans have never had a problem waiting a year or two for movies. So that was just a lot of Star Wars at once, and fans didn't have the chance to miss the franchise before it came out. Some behind-the-scenes things caused people to worry about the production, and Lucasfilm didn't do a good job of assuaging those fears either. The casting, however, was not something that anyone who saw the movie either when it was in theaters or after the fact had a problem with.

Kennedy and Lucasfilm thinking that the failure of Solo means they can't recast people means that Indiana Jones is done after this next entry in the franchise. It means more of these weird deepfakes that we're getting in the shows instead of young talent bringing new dimensions to classic characters—it limits what can be done even as the technology continues to improve. The reaction to the recasting and the praise of the deepfakes seems to prove the hypothesis to Lucasfilm, which means we shouldn't be expecting anyone amazing to bring a new angle to Leia, Luke, Han, or anyone else, anytime soon. And that is a real shame for the next generation of Star Wars fans.

Summary: During an adventure into a dark criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard, stars Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, and Thandie Newton. It was released on May 25, 2018, and is now available to stream on Disney+.


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Kaitlyn BoothAbout Kaitlyn Booth

Kaitlyn is the Editor-in-Chief at Bleeding Cool. She loves movies, television, and comics. She's a member of the UFCA and the GALECA. Feminist. Writer. Nerd. Follow her on Twitter @katiesmovies and @safaiagem on Instagram.
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