Solo’s Box Office Failure Changed Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Plans In 4 Ways
More than four years after Solo: A Star Wars Story, the impact of the movie's box office results is still being felt in the franchise. When Disney bought Lucasfilm, one of the first announced Star Wars projects besides Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a Han Solo spinoff movie that would show the origins of the character before the events of A New Hope. Lucasfilm also quickly started working on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and it seemed at the time that this particular format of spinoffs for old and new characters would become the norm for the franchise.
The massive success of The Force Awakens, which currently ranks at four in the list of highest-grossing movies of all time, proved that Disney's plan to restart the Star Wars franchise with sequels and spinoffs had worked. The also strong Rogue One box office, which crossed the billion-dollar mark, made it seem like similar spinoffs set close to the events of the original trilogy, by far the less divisive Star Wars films, were going to be guaranteed success. As such, Solo kept the «A Star Wars Story» tagline, but the film would soon prove to be a lot trickier than Rogue One.
Related: How Andor Can Flip Star Wars Prequels’ Oldest Complaint
Unlike Rogue One, whose main characters (like Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor) were created for the movie, Solo would tackle one of the most iconic Star Wars names, Han Solo. Not only that, but unlike Obi-Wan Kenobi or even Darth Vader, Han Solo had previously been played by one actor only, Harrison Ford, to the point it was difficult to even picture another person in the role. Still, Lucasfilm believed that Han Solo's popularity could lead to a successful movie, and up-and-coming directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were chosen to helm the
Read more on screenrant.com
