What Don’t You Know About Solo: A Star Wars Story?

Ron Howard is one of my favorite directors – EVER!!!  So it suffices to say that I was beyond thrilled to hear what he had to say about directing a chapter in the Star Wars saga…

RON HOWARD:  Well, it’s its own, it’s the galaxy far, far away and, ah, you know, and you… the level of anticipation is really unlike anything I’ve done.   I began to recognize, you know, as something similar to the Beatles documentary that I took on… I’m at a point in my life where I like experimenting, I like to take some chances.  I’m not too worried about the outcome.  I wanted to have the creative experience, but I also felt that way about jumping into the Beatles documentary and then I could tell from the moment it was announced, Ron, don’t f*** this up.   Of course, you know, the fans care.  And they should care.

And then, there was the question to Jonathan  and Lawrence Kasdan of how long this story on Han Solo had been bumping around…

JONATHAN KASDAN:  What had been bubbling for me was from the moment, when I was relatively young, and I first saw Han Solo in the cantina and I immediately sparked to him.  He lifted up the whole movie instantly.  This is a character who’s reckless, who’s cynical, who doesn’t trust anybody.  He just does things he shouldn’t do.  He gets in over his head instantly and you can see that in the brilliance of George Lucas’s cantina scene.  It’s just a few minutes and you get everything about who this guy is.

LAWRENCE KASDAN:  And I think he wanted me to write it with him because I am all those things. [LAUGHTER]

JONATHAN KASDAN:  I had grown up with Star Wars; I’d grown up playing with the toys and we thought that somehow between our two dynamics, between me as a fan and him as an older Jedi master, we could figure out some sort of dynamic where we could forge a story that felt both sort of contemporary and true to the spirit of Solo.

 

What did Alden Ehrenreich have to say about Han Solo?

ALDEN EHRENREICH:  Yeah, it… it’s really wild, it’s really exciting.  It’s kind of bigger than you can even wrap your head around.  Um.  And it’s, it’s wonderful — particularly being in the Millennium Falcon is very, very cool.   And then, you know, a couple of months into shooting in it, you’re inside of it and you’re flying it.  You know where the buttons are.  You know how the chair feels, you know the yoke and you feel like, okay, this is kind of like my ship now. [LAUGHTER] And that is a… deeply, ah, gratifying.

and then THIS happened..

ALDEN EHRENREICH:  Unbelievable.  Oh my God.  So right before we started shooting, I wanted to talk to Harrison, just to kind of pay respect and have him give us the blessings… for the film and — so we had lunch.  He was really encouraging and really supportive and then we went off, shot the film and everything like that and today I was doing an interview and they were talking about, you know, is there anything else you’d like to ask him?  Because, you’ll have your chance — and he was behind me.  He came. [LAUGHTER] And he’s so effusive about the movie.  It meant so much to me and I know for Ron and the Kathy and everybody, you know, it’s just such a huge deal to have him really genuinely love it.  It meant a lot to me that he took the time to come out here and do that.

 

We talked with Aden about taking on Han Solo, but what did Donald Glover feel taking on the big shoes of Lando (originally played by the iconic Billy Dee Williams)

DONALD GLOVER:  I think as much as any like… seven-year-old boy does.  I have Darth Vader… had  a light saber and I bit it off and I gave it to Lando. [LAUGHTER] And then my mom wouldn’t let me have the light saber anymore because she thought I’d choke on it.   I told my agent,  if they’re making anything with Lando in it, I have to be Lando.  And… and he was like, I hear you.  I don’t like your odds. [LAUGHTER] And that was exactly what I needed to hear.  It was like the only role I wanted in the world.   I’m just really happy to be part of this experience of it.  It’s really cool!

Chewbacca weighed in with some commentary as well…

JOONAS SUOTAMO:   When I got to know that I was going to playing this character, I really couldn’t sleep at night and I was so excited because… this was a life-changer for me.  I was, I mean, I was… borderline… jobless… when I, when I got this role. [LAUGHTER] You know.  So… I mean, my now fiancée, my then girlfriend has seen me going from living with my mom to becoming Chewbacca. [LAUGHTER] That’s, that’s the span of our relationship right now. [LAUGHTER]  It’s just now that this behavior suits me. [LAUGHTER] It’s funny because this character is so loved and Peter Mayhew, who created this character along with George Lucas, has been so instrumental in giving me his blessing.  And giving me some tips on how to be this character and — seeing him after.

 

Wow…this was just a taste of some of the Solo:  A Star Wars Story suggests I grabbed.  Wanna know how I felt about the film…CLICK HERE