Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm clarified in an interview with Vanity Fair that they will not repeat their pattern of anthology movies after the outcome of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Lucasfilm always wanted to make anthology movies and he got an amazing result with the first successful Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016. To keep the pattern going, they quickly came up with this movie that wasn’t a good decision.
Solo: A Star Wars Story Journey with the LucasFilm
The movie explores the early adventures of the fan-favorite smuggler Han Solo and his first meeting with Chewbacca which somehow bridges their bonding to make a major name in the galactic criminal underworld 10 years before the events of the original Star Wars.
Alden Ehrenreich is the lead cast of the movie, who takes up the character of Han Solo with Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian from Billy Dee Williams and Joonas Suotamo taking over as Chewbacca from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi while the other cast includes Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Thandiwe Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany who made their debut in the franchise.
The Solo: A Star Wars Story went through a rocky journey, with original directors duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller being fired from the film in June 2017 following “creative differences” with Lucasfilm, and Ron Howard was hired as their replacement with the budget reported $300 million, making this movie one of the most expensive films of all-time. Though this movie needed good marketing, the Oscar-winning filmmaker made up for the lack of information about the film by sharing images of everything on social media.
No Anthology Movies From Star Wars Franchise
Though Lucasfilm Solo: A Star Wars Story received somewhat positive feedback from critics, it was also criticized for its elements. The direction of its cast especially Ehrenreich and Glover was appreciated along with its action portions but the storyline and tone didn’t seem to connect with the audience that got the criticism. It was the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars film and the first to be considered a box office bomb.
When Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was asked about the possibility of other iconic characters getting the same anthology movie as Young Han Solo, she confirmed, “There should be moments along the way when you learn things. Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”
With Lucasfilm’s confirmation about not following solo’s trend, it’s pretty clear Star Wars will not be making any anthology films as of now. Though Solo didn’t perform well, Donald Glover’s performance in Star Wars: Lando was highly appreciated by critics. Though Solo became a lesson for Lucasfilm who now know what audiences felt worked in Solo and what didn’t.
