If you’ve been wondering how ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story‘ had changed from the Kasdans’ original script from Chris Miller and Phil Lord being involved before they were let go and replaced by Ron Howard, we’ve got answers! Co-writer Jon Kasdan has been quite open about the production of the film since the digital copy was released and now is sharing what the two directors had brought to the table. While the tone they were pushing for seemed to clash with what LucasFilm had in mind for the film, it does appear that the duo still contributed quite a bit towards the story which we ended up seeing.
Right off the bat while Han was still a small-time crook on Corellia, we saw that he had to defer to Lady Proxima who ran crime in the area he grew up in. While she was always a member of a group called the White Worms, she was initially a “well dressed, vampiric, albino aliens” and the two ended up turning her into an actual wormlike creature.
Also on Corellia, when Han and Qi’ra were trying to get off the planet, there was a speeder chase in the movie. This wasn’t initially in the script, but the directors felt that audiences needed to see that he could fly something before the Millennium Falcon and the speeder was the first glimpse of that. Especially as his attempt at learning to pilot TIE Fighters was scrapped.
Moving on to introducing Chewbacca, they were also the ones who wanted to make Chewie “the beast” and have him start off in a cage fight. The pair were also responsible for Han knowing how to speak in Chewie’s language which hadn’t been in the original script.
As to the area where Han would first meet Lando, the directors were also the ones who designed The Lodge at Fort Ypso and took inspiration from Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
Now, as to L3-37 which was the droid we all loved it actually came up from a line in A New Hope. The Mos Eisley wouldn’t serve droids, and the directors wanted a reason for this. The idea ended up being that a potential robot rebellion has turned some people against having droids around.
Also reaching back to earlier films, the scene with Han and Qi’ra in Lando’s cape closet was a call back to a scene from The Empire Strikes back between Han and Leia.
On the casting end of things, Lord and Miller were responsible for both Alden Ehrenreich himself as Han Solo and Erin Kellyman as Enfys Nest.
Not all of the director’s changes made it into the film though as there are two scenes which were proposed and shot down. One of which was the creation of an elephant-like animal which had a drill for a snout that would have been being used in the mines on Kessel. The creature was meant to chase Chewie and Han through the tunnels and get some great banter, but it was said to be too expensive for the already inflated budget. The other though, was how the alien was introduced on the Kessel Run. The original plan had the smugglers showing up on a random planet during the run which would have been covered in terrifying aliens, and the largest would have come from there and chased them. However, this seemed to stop the momentum of the escape dead in its tracks and was scrapped.
Which contribution from Phil Lord and Chris Miller do you feel worked best for ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’? Did you love Ron Howard’s take on the movie or wish we had been given a chance to see what these two directors would have come up with? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Cinema Blend
