George Lucas Had A Hand In Directing Solo

The latest Solo article from Entertainment Weekly gives insight to Ron Howard's side of the Solo Story, and how he eventually fit into the big picture.

How much of the film is his and how much is theirs? That’s a question fans have been asking, but Howard isn’t answering. Instead, he paraphrases the smuggler himself.

“As Han says, ‘Don’t tell me the percentages.’ Never tell me the percentages,” Howard says with a laugh. “I don’t really want to explain it. I don’t really want to be specific about that because, again, I don’t even want that to matter to fans. I could understand why you’d ask, and some might even be curious, but look, everybody who has been involved in this has done nothing but love what this movie could be, and that’s been the vibe around it. I think audiences are gonna feel that love and excitement.”

Apart from having the means and desire to help a production in trouble, there was another factor that drew him in to Solo. “George is like a big brother mentor in my life,” Howard says.

Even though Lucas sold his company to Disney and is no longer actively involved in the films, the legacy of the character and the new slate of movies meant something to Howard.

“I actually felt like it was gonna be a very unique, creative experience for me. It happened to fit into my life, and I liked the adventure of tackling challenges, and this was certainly gonna be a hell of a challenge — and it has been,” Howard says. “But an exciting one.”

He got a helping hand from old friends, too. Ford spoke with Howard and gave him some insights into the character that he typically begrudges curious Star Wars fans.

Then, just as shooting resumed, Howard got a visit from another familiar face: The guy who first told him about this galaxy, a long time ago.

“He came by to visit the first day that I picked up shooting. George and his wife, Melody, came by to pay a little set visit. It made me feel great,” Howard says.

Lucas, the father of Star Wars who handed it off to another generation to become the grandfather of Star Wars, even gave him some advice that sounds straight out of the Obi-Wan playbook.

“He told me just trust my instincts, you know?” Howard says with a laugh. “I know he kind of fundamentally feels like, first and foremost, [these films are] sort of for 12-year-old boys, and yet even he knows that it’s grown so far beyond that, and the fans have grown with the series in a great, important way. So he didn’t offer a lot of advice except, ‘You’ll get this.’”

That brief set visit became a longer one. And a longer one.

“He had intended to just kind of stop by and say hi, and he stayed five hours,” Kennedy says. “There’s even one little moment in a scene that — I can’t tell you what, sorry — but in the scene on the Millennium Falcon where George said, ‘Why doesn’t Han just do this.’”

In other words, George Lucas helped direct a small part of Solo.

“It actually is a funny little bit that will probably get a laugh,” Kennedy says. “And Ron happened to be by the monitor and not inside the Falcon and he goes, ‘Oh that’s a great idea,’ and ran in and said, ‘George wants us to do this.’ So that was pretty cool. I think George felt pretty great about that. He could revisit these characters, and I think he felt so comfortable, obviously with Ron being there, that it was just fun for him.

Lucas’ final wisdom for his old American Graffiti actor: “just enjoy this.”

Click here for the full article!

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