Twitter came very close to losing it when the Young Han Solo shakeup was announced
Yesterday, we were all stunned by the news that The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were exiting the upcoming Han Solo film — four months into filming. The duo and LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy apparently struggled with creative differences for months, before ultimately parting ways.
In a statement released yesterday (June 20th), Kennedy announced that the two had exited the highly anticipated project. She said, “Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are talented filmmakers who have assembled an incredible cast and crew, but it’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways. A new director will be announced soon.”
Lord and Miller reiterated the creative differences between the parties in their own statement. “Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners on this project. We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew.”
Fans were so shocked by the news that Twitter *almost* broke:
Young Lando shows up on set tomorrow like #StarWars pic.twitter.com/lAMrPjlVPM
— Charlie Schneider (@AwesomEmergency) June 20, 2017
Film Twitter trying to figure out why Lord and Miller left the Han Solo movie. #HanSolo pic.twitter.com/ryIckfGaYS
— Denizcan S. (@MrFilmkritik) June 21, 2017
EXCLUSIVE – An ACTUAL image of the LucasFilm head-office right now regarding the #HanSolo directors leaving 5-months into shooting. pic.twitter.com/LP7bRlNusn
— MrTARDIS (@TrilbeeReviews) June 21, 2017
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The Floor is the Han Solo movie pic.twitter.com/5cxw8NdWtQ
— Nicholas (@_NicholasSmith_) June 21, 2017
Could…Daniel Day-Lewis direct a Han Solo movie
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 20, 2017
Trevorrow pulling some Jedi mind tricks. #starwars #hansolo pic.twitter.com/QJ98sRo9Yy
— Kristy Puchko (@KristyPuchko) June 20, 2017
No concrete details about Lord & Miller's exit from HAN SOLO, but I heard there was a big argument over who shot first. 😜
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) June 20, 2017
Phil Lord: Everything's going great on the Han Solo set.
Chris Miller: We should be finished soon.
Ron Howard (voiceover): They weren't.— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) June 21, 2017
The shocking news came alongside reports that Kennedy and the directing duo had been struggling to see eye to eye for months. According to the official statement released by LucasFilm, the project is still slated to be released in May 2018. While it’s unknown who will take the reins from Lord and Miller, it’s been reported that Disney is already eyeing a few big name directors to take over the project.
It’s also unclear how the direction change will impact filming — which was allegedly nearly three-quarters of the way done — or whether Lord and Miller will receive any credit on the final cut of the project. We still have so many questions but we can’t help but wonder: what would Han Solo think about all of this?
