chewbacca and han

Fans were lucky enough to be able to live tweet with Ron Howard recently, and get a number of ‘Solo: A Star Wars Questions’ presented before the director of the upcoming film, who seemed more than happy to answer what he could while sitting in front of a web-cam with his co-pilot, the mighty Chewbacca. First up, a fan asked an important question, which was about new composer for the franchise (though he has been in Hollywood for a number of years and done some excellent work) John Powell:

In response to the tweet, Howard replied:

“John Williams himself suggested that John Powell would be a great candidate to not only use the classic Star Wars themes, but also the new theme that John Williams himself wrote for Han Solo. John Powell wrote a lot of great themes, including the first-ever Chewbacca theme.”

When another tweet asked about the friendship of Han and Chewie in the movie, Howard stated:

“This is the story of their relationship — it’s not always a friendship. When they first meet, we’re not sure which way this whole thing could go.”

Another tweet asked how the movie was different than other ‘Star Wars’ films, to which Howard replied:

“You don’t have to know anything about the Star Wars canon or legacy to enjoy the movie. It’s about this young guy defining himself and his quest for freedom. It’s not about war, and it’s not about politics. These are the adventures that shaped young Han Solo.”

He couldn’t quite do it in 5 words, but here are 6 words Howard used to describe Qi’ra in the film:

“Strong. Intelligent. Ambitious. Complicated. Beautiful. Ugh, dangerous! That’s six. But I don’t want to give away anything.”

When asked about Donald Glover and taking on the role of Young Lando, Howard practically gushed about the actor:

“Donald Glover is such an inspired performer and a great guy, who just works so hard. He had so much respect for Billy Dee Williams and the character of Lando, and what that character meant. … He’s one of those guys everybody enjoyed working with because there is so much respect for his creativity and his spirit.”

And lastly, when asked about Alden Ehrenreich’s work as Han, Howard was very generous considering all we have heard about the turmoil behind the scenes:

“He’s charismatic. He has a twinkle in his eye. He’s handsome. But he’s an incredibly thoughtful and dedicated actor. It was a huge responsibility and he took it seriously on behalf of Star Wars and the fans.”

Definitely fun to hear from Howard on the movie and see him getting out there to promote, as hopefully this means post-production on ‘Solo’ is complete and he is happy with the film, as otherwise I would imagine he would still be sitting in an editing room furious struggling to finish the final cut. I just hope after everything this film went through it will be something worthy of ‘Star Wars’ and of all the drama, and that Lucasfilm and everyone involved did not suffer through all these issues for a film that turns out to be a dud.

Source: EW