Solo: A Star Wars Story is already sending out stars to assuage fears
Six months before its release, a cast member has spoken effusively about her experiences. It’s time to worry about Solo: A Star Wars Story again.
One has to wonder if Lucasfilm read reports from sites like our own sister site, Dork Side of the Force, about how much work Ron Howard may have actually done on Solo: A Star Wars Story, and collectively decided it was time to send in a star of the movie to assure fans that everything is fine.
There’s just one major problem with this: it looks like really early form of damage control that does not inspire confidence, even when it’s Entertainment Weekly speaking to Thandie Newton. She says, about the directorial change, “I think it’s less about things going wrong than getting more help”.
That’s quite diplomatic, isn’t it? Perhaps most telling, though, is the fact that EW quotes Newton as saying these particular tidbits:
"Ninety percent of my stuff is with [Chris Lord and Phil Miller]. And it certainly wasn’t about, ‘Oh we have to start again and do it all over.’"
Without directly addressing the claims that Howard shot about 80% of Solo over again, as Dork Side reports, Newton has what appears to be a fairly solid rebuttal on first glance. However, there’s definitely some wiggle room in these statements. 80% is not “all,” so what she’s saying could still square with those rumors … from a certain point of view. (Can you blame us?)
Additionally, we still don’t know how big Newton’s role is, so it’s possible that her role didn’t need much in the way of alteration anyway. That’s even with the rumors that she’s playing an antagonist in the film — and we do know, as seen in that link, that she did have to return to the set for work with Howard. How much do we see the Emperor in the original trilogy? Or Snoke in The Force Awakens? Star Wars has never been a franchise where you need a lot of screen time to make a big impression.
With this statement, it’s difficult to not let those old concerns about the film come up again, not when we’re just over a month away from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. TLJ should be absorbing all of our attention right now, but instead, here comes this seemingly little reassurance about Solo.
Next: The Last Jedi: A little dose of lightsaber talk
It is not the greatest look, but it’s what we have. How do these comments make you feel about the movie?