Kathleen Kennedy talks troubles on the set of ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’

It’s no secret that the production of Solo: A Star Wars Story has been difficult. The now infamous firing of original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller sent shockwaves through fandom. The situation caused many to fear the film would turn out to be a muddled mess, fears which were somewhat allayed by last weeks trailer.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has been discussing circumstances around the firing in a new interview with EW.

“I just say over and over again that, yes, it was an incredibly difficult decision that we had to make and obviously it was pretty late in the game, which shows we spent a lot of time trying not to have to make that decision,” says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. “And I think both Chris and Phil are enormously talented and incredibly funny. When all of this came together, all of us wanted nothing more than to have this be an incredible working experience. And when it was not working out as we had all hoped, it wasn’t out of lack of talent.”

It certainly seems that Kennedy isn’t proud of the decision to make sure a huge change at the last second. She goes on to discuss how Lord and Millers process of working was behind the decision.

“I think these guys are hilarious, but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy and when you are making these movies you can do that and there’s plenty of room for improvisation, we do that all the time, but it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can’t get the work done and you can’t move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready. So, it literally came down to process. Just getting it done.”

Perhaps it was simply the directors penchant for improvisation which caused Disney and Lucasfilm such a headache. Could they have spent so much time on key scenes that production was continually delayed? Disney is certainly a studio which prefers to work to its deadlines.

Click on the EW link above for the full, intriguing, story.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Emilia Clarke as Kira, Woodly Harrelson as Beckett, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. The film also stars Thandie Newton, Warwick Davis and Paul Bettany.

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits cinemas May 25, 2018.