Ron Howard Addresses Possible Sequel To SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY and It's Not Up To Him
I enjoyed Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and I thought that Ron Howard did a wonderful job directing it after replacing Phil Lord and Chris Miller. After I watched the Star Wars movie, I was excited about the future of the franchise and I was completely on board to see the story continue. But, after the film didn’t meet expectations at the box office, Disney changed the future of their theatrical plans up and after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, we still have yet to see a new Star Wars movie, and as far as I know, there are no plans at all for a direct sequel to Solo.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ron Howard was asked about a possible sequel and while he’d be up for it if it happened, he has no say in the decision. He expained:
"I'm not a producer on Solo. I came in in support of the project and for my long relationship with George [Lucas], Kathy [Kennedy], and Larry Kasdan. So I have not even been in conversations about it. One would assume that there's some characters there that could go much further, but I'm not sure where Disney+ is going with the Galaxy. These shows are not only important to everybody who works on them, but they're a big bet for the company each and every time. They make their choices really carefully, and they want to keep growing and evolving. So I know that's not really an answer, but there's a real appetite to understand where Star Wars can take audience members to, in addition to building upon characters and ideas that are already known. But there's a lot of talent in Solo, and whether I was involved or not, I would love to see some of those characters again."
The script for Solo was written by Jonathan Kasdan along with his father Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi), and when Kasdan was asked about a potential Solo sequel in an interview with CBM, he said he's "conflicted" about the idea of making Solo 2 happen:
"Yes, you know, I've been very conflicted about it over the past couple of years. I feel that too. I'm certainly one of those people, and when that time of year rolls around, immediately, my imagination goes to all the things we intended to do. But then, on the other side, I'm so overwhelmed by how much great Star Wars content is coming into the world at this moment. I'm excited for the movie that Damon Lindelof is going to make. I'm excited for another season of Andor, possibly the best Star Wars show in history. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau are just knocking out great, fun pieces of candy every six months that we get to enjoy. You know, I think if there's a reason for a Solo 2 is if there's a great reason. Certainly, I'd be game if there were.
"That feels like there's so much fun. That was another version of there were so many great characters we were able to establish and, for me, I guess the strangest argument for a Solo 2 is that the movie was Alden's journey to owning that mantle. By the end of it, I thought he really did, and he didn't get the fun of just inhabiting it for a movie. I'd love to see him back."
I doubt we’ll ever see a Solo sequel, but Lucasfilm has been developing a Lando series with Donald Glover and that will be interesting to see. It’s also the closest thing that we’ll get to a sequel and it would be great if ended up moving some of the story elements introduced in Solo forward.