Kathleen Kennedy's Solo Recast Comment Confirms Our Worst Fears
Kathleen Kennedy's comments about recasting Star Wars legacy characters as they did with Han Solo doesn’t bode well for the long-term future of the franchise. Alden Ehrenreich was recast as a young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story, replacing Harrison Ford for the prequel. The movie had a troubled production, with Ron Howard reshooting a large portion of the film after original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired over creative differences with Lucasfilm. Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to recoup its mammoth budget, becoming Star Wars' first bomb. Kathleen Kennedy's comments though suggest that Solo's failure is being attributed primarily to Han Solo being recast.
Prior to Solo: A Star Wars Story Lucasfilm had been experimenting with CGI performances for the Star Wars legacy characters. Grand Moff Tarkin was brought back for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with deceased actor Peter Cushing's face being superimposed over stand-in actor Guy Henry's. The same effect was repeated for Princess Leia in Rogue One, and again in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Luke Skywalker though has had the most CGI face time, with de-aged appearances in The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett. As Lucasfilm is making so much content around the original Star Wars trilogy, this preference towards CGI for Star Wars legacy characters will probably continue. In light of this, Han Solo being recast seems out of place, with Kathleen Kennedy saying "There should be moments along the way when you learn things. Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that."
Related: How Mark Hamill Was De-aged For Young Luke Skywalker In Mandalorian
Though the deepfake and de-aging technology is an amazing tool
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