Solo. That’s the title of the upcoming Star Wars Story spinoff that follows the adventures of a young Han Solo, played by Alden Ehrenreich. After months of speculation, a change in directors, and reshoots, Ron Howard finally revealed the official title of the project — formerly operating under the working title “Red Cup” — on his Twitter account today in a special message to fans.
The upcoming Han Solo spinoff would be remiss if it didn’t address the most famous of our dear smuggler’s exploits: that time he and the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
Ron Howard has been keeping us somewhat up to date on his process shooting the untitled Han Solo prequel spinoff. He posts new tweets almost daily showing off the most behind-the-scenes stuff he can get away with, and today was no different: Howard posted a video from the set showing a pile of junk that looks like pieces of a crashed vehicle. Maybe one of the ships that didn’t make the Kessel Run?
Ron Howard finally learned how to use his phone camera! The director has been sharing a bunch of obscure (and relatively boring) photos from the set of the Han Solo movie since taking over as director. He took a photo of a case of water bottles (thrilling!), a street sign outside Pinewood Studios, and a coffee mug, convincing me that they all must have been accidents. He was clearly trying to take a selfie with Alden Ehrenreich’s titular smuggler but couldn’t figure out how to reverse the camera. Finally, today, we got a revealing photo.
Woody Harrelson is a pretty chill dude, so when he was recently asked about Ron Howard replacing Phil Lord and Chris Miller on the Han Solo spinoff, his response wasn’t particularly surprising: “I wouldn’t worry.” Of course he wouldn’t worry; he’s Woody Harrelson, a man who wears flip flops to film premieres and calls fellow mellow dude Matthew McConaughey his BFF.
Ron Howard is a very capable director who knows how to position a camera and capture a powerful image. But I also have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Ron Howard isn’t great at social media or taking casual phone pics. He seems like the type of dad who accidentally snaps a selfie when attempting to take a shot of a sunset, or butt-Facetimes his family. Just look at his latest Twitter photo.
We’re still reeling from the news that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have walked off (or been fired from) the Han Solo spinoff Star Wars anthology film, but this movie has a release date in less than a year, and it is coming to theaters, with Lord/Miller or not. Although the news that the directing duo was not finishing Han Solo was announced today, the search for a replacement was already underway. Deadline says that Lucasfilm’s top pick at the moment is Ron Howard, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of movies like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code: