Star Wars fandom wasn't initially enamored with the idea of a Han Solo origin film, but that didn't stop them from being shocked and surprised by the news that Phil Lord and Chris Miller were being unceremoniously removed from the project after several months of shooting. While it wasn't the first bit of behind the scenes drama in the newly relaunched franchise - Josh Trank's removal from the Boba Fett spin-off, Harrison Ford breaking his leg under the Millennium Falcon's ramp, and weeks of Rogue One reshoots come to mind - the situation with the united Han Solo movie was different than anything most movie fans had ever seen.
Lucasfilm was quick to bring in veteran director Ron Howard to continue production with a hand wave, saying "move along, move along," and attention was quickly diverted to Rian Johnson's incoming The Last Jedi and the much more familiar storyline it's set to continue. Meanwhile, Ron Howard got to work, breaking with the tradition of modern Star Wars directors, began regularly posting set images and teases to social media, showing fans that there's nothing to worry about and everything's under control. Situation normal. But as time goes on and more and more set pictures arrive, the question continues to grow: how much of the Han Solo movie is Ron Howard reshooting?
As with anything of this nature, it's not an easy question to answer, and the full behind the scenes story won't be available to the public for some years, if ever, but we do have enough puzzle pieces to get a little clearer picture of what's going on behind the scenes and just what we can ultimately expect from this movie.
What's Being Changed?
In the aftermath of Lord and Miller's departure, a flurry of stories came forward revealing a little more of the behind the scenes situation. While there were a multitude of issues cited, there were enough common threads between each account to get an idea of what elements of the movie needed actual fixing. Looking at each of these issues is the first step to knowing how much needed to be redone in total.
Tone and Characterization
One of the most interesting reports about the production woes was regarding Alden Erenreich's performance as Han Solo. Given, recreating such an iconic character was never going to be easy for any actor, but Erenreich has some solid past performances under his belt, so it should be no big deal for him. It doesn't sound like that's how things were going, though. Reportedly Lucasfilm had to hire an acting coach to help him give a portrayal more in line with the Han we know and love. However, it turns out it might not have been Alden's acting, but the direction he was receiving that was problematic. Some reports said his performance was more in line with Ace Ventura than Han Solo, and that's a mark so far off target it's hard to imagine he got there without being told to play it that way.
Considering Lord and Miller were taking a more comedic approach than Lucasfilm wanted, that definitely seems to be the case, but, either way, if Erenreich was truly deliering an Ace Ventura level performance, or, frankly, anything in that ballpark, then it's a good bet that the majority of his dialogue would need to be reshot. An extreme take like that is hard to edit around simply by shooting a few alternate takes.
Adherence to the Script
That particular performance was likely arrived at due to the improv-heavy style Lord & Miller are known for, but their venture's off the script in the Han Solo movie supposedly became so extreme that they began to affect the actual plot of the movie. As a producer on the film, Lawrence Kasdan was reportedly very specific that he wants things to be done as they are on the page, and while one of the most famous lines of one of Kasdan's most famous movies - Han Solo's "I know" in The Empire Strikes Back - was an improvised line, it's one that serves the version of the character he wrote and it doesn't derail the plot in any way.
Since this disagreement led to Lord and Miller being kicked off the project, it can only be assumed that this type of improvisation was the rule, not the exception, meaning a major portion of the dialogue would have to be redone. Fortunately, there's likely a lot of overlap between this problem and the problem of Han Solo's portrayal, but it still impacts the extent to which the movie need to be reshot. If a given scene was entirely off script then it may need to be reshot start to finish in order to get it back on track and simple additional takes won't do.
Not Enough Camera Angles
Another Lucasfilm mandate Lord and Miller were bucking was the desire to have a certain number of camera angles for each scene. It's not clear if this is a normal Lucasfilm expectation or if it's something they were requesting of Lord and Miller specifically in order to make sure they had as much footage as possible to work with, but either way, it doesn't sound like the duo paid any heed to the desire and would take well under the assigned shots, with the specific example cited being a request for 12-15 angles and they provided 3. Fortunately, this is unlikely to be a major source of reshoots on its own since they're already reshooting a significant chunk of the movie, but it's just one more issue that needs to be addressed.
There's a lot of hypotheticals in all this, but without clear insight into the behind the scenes situation, which we won't get for years - if ever - the big tell about the significance is that Lord and Miller were taken off the project entirely. Whatever the situation was, it was determined that they were actually a roadblock to the movie and should be taken off and taken off as early as possible - ensuring that they were ineligible for any DGA protected influence on the creative process.
Rogue One also underwent significant reshoots and Tony Gilroy was brought in to assist Gareth Edwards with the process, but Edwards was cooperative and ultimately the movie was a critical and financial success. We can only assume that the situation with Lord and Miller was so dire that that same scenario wouldn't have worked, underlining the severity of the issues outlined above and the necessity of bringing in a reliable veteran like Ron Howard to not just wrap up the project and get it across the finish line, but go back and correct the numerous issues with Lord and Miller's footage.
Timeline of Evidence
Now that we've established the multiple problem areas Lucasfilm would like Ron Howard to address, let's take a look at how much of that he's done so far. In order to examine this topic, we're going to have to estimate the work done by Lord and Miller before their departure and then compare against what we know Ron Howard has done since coming on.
On January 30th 2017, Chris Miller tweeted an image of a clapperboard with Han Solo's working title "Red Cup" with the caption "Han First Shot," indicating the first shot of the movie had either just happened or was about to happen. Production didn't officially begin until February 20th, but just to give Lord & Miller the benefit of the doubt, we'll run with January 30th, assuming those extra 3 weeks were productive. With the duo's firing happening on June 20th, that means they had been shooting for approximately 20 weeks.
Ron Howard joined the project on June 22nd, and, as of this writing, Ron Howard has been reshooting Han Solo for approximately 11 weeks. Assuming an equivalent rate of production (although it's quite possible they're moving faster and pulling longer days), that means that Ron Howard has shot enough footage to equel 55% of Lord and Miller's movie.
With a reported 3 weeks of production remaining and the assumption of a typical 3 weeks of reshoots (had everything gone smoothly), that means that if Lord & Miller had stayed on to the end in a normal production, they would have been shooting for approximately 26 weeks. The movie's principal photography and reshoots seemed to have been rolled into the same schedule, but Ron Howard is fast approaching the halfway mark for the totality of the original production schedule.
Having said that, prior to the directors' firing, there were rumors saying that the movie was having issues and already going through reshoots during principal photography, meaning Lord and Miller's total production was moving even slower - in addition to the fact that they reportedly were regularly getting late starts and running off schedule - and that 55% shot by Ron Howard starts to look like a very generous number. He's likely done quite a bit more than that.
For context, World War Z - possibly the gold standard for extreme reshoots - underwent 7 weeks of reshoots to reportedly change 30-40 minutes of the film, most significantly altering the movie's second half.
The big difference with Han Solo is that nothing is actually being changed when it comes to the script (that we know of). Lord & Miller's production veered too far from the story and tone written by John and Larry Kasdan, so Ron Howard is redoing scenes that have already been created, meaning there's likely a lot of synergies since the cast and crew have already run through the scenes (to some extent), and many of the sets are likely already built.
It may seem like an old familiar story, but it couldn't be any more different. Instead of realizing the original vision of the movie was flawed and using reshoots to course correct, these reshoots are completely intended to honor the original intent. They may be taking a messy route to get there, but it raises a lot more eyebrows than red flags.
Ron Howard Provided BTS Insight
Another marked difference under Ron Howard's production, a factor distinctly different from every other modern Star Wars production, is his heavy use of social media, regularly teasing behind the scenes details or trolling fans. While he hasn't overtly Tweeted or Instagrammed any spoilers, it is possible to look at what he's posted to get a rough idea of a minimum number of scenes he's worked on. Sure, he probably hasn't teased every single set, so we're still partially shooting in the dark, but it's enough to establish that, as a baseline, Ron Howard has shot at least 14 different scenes, per pictures on his Twitter and Instagram.
This information isn't very useful without a copy of the script or seeing the final product, but as a (very rough) comparison, Rogue One and The Force Awakens each had between 20-25 different settings each. Some scenes were obviously shot and cut, and the same could happen with Han Solo, but by comparing this number to what we've seen in other recent Star Wars movies, it once again puts Howard's production at well over 50% of the work done by Lord and Miller, lining up very nicely with the numbers we got by comparing the production timelines.
All things being equal, that means that Ron Howard's production could hypothetically eclipse 100% of the work done by Lord and Miller as soon as October 5th with more conservative estimates marking that point at November 9th. Just because Ron Howard reaches that November 9th date doesn't necessarily mean he's actually replaced each and every frame of Lord & Miller's work, though. Just that he's likely shot an equivalent amount. Lord & Miller had a number of weeks left when they were fired, though, meaning Ron Howard may need to keep cameras rolling as long as the end of November if he's going to be responsible for every single shot of the movie himself.
Now, when Ron Howard came aboard, he said Lord and Miller's footage was "very usable" and he intended to honor what they'd already done. That's a very gracious thing for him to say, and we can probably take him at his word to an extent. Lots of decisions were made before Howard came on, particularly the cast and crew, so the fact that they're not simply starting over at square one means they're definitely honoring a lot of Lord and Miller's choices. As far as the "very usable" footage he references, we just need to look at the areas that weren't highlighted as a problem. Of note, nothing was said about any action scenes or effects sequences, which always make up a good chunk of most Star Wars movies.
He has yet to reach the point in the timeline where we can assume he's thrown all their work out, but based on the diagnosis of the movie's issues, it seemed like the majority of the unusable footage was mostly dialogue or drama oriented. In fact, the reshoots of these portions were so significant that Michael K. Williams' character reportedly has to be recast entirely since he's unable to participate in reshoots. In fact, Howard has brought in a few new actors, notably his own brother and Paul Bettany, in unspecified roles. Both actors are seasoned performers, so their roles are likely more than simple cameos, suggesting they're a part of new scenes, not replacements for existing characters. Either way, their involvement is a clear separation from L&M.
A reportedly positive response from Disney execs after a viewing of a sizzle reel - which are usually action heavy - definitely corroborates the idea that Lord & Miller's action scenes were usable, but a Tweet from Howard where he says he's working out the logistics of a "high octane" action sequence suggests that none of Lord & Miller's footage is sacred. Given, it could have been a scene Lord & Miller hadn't gotten to yet, indicating Howard is already pushing on beyond the work completed before him. At this point, it's just a matter of seeing how long production continues. As each week goes by and Ron Howard sends out another image to social media, that's just one more piece of Lord & Miller's involvement getting slowly erased.
This is Good News
Han Solo is the unique blockbuster film that has a firmly set script. Lawrence Kasdan and his son John reportedly wrote the Han Solo script together and it was completed well before the start of production. Han Solo's fixes aren't necessary because the script evolved and the footage needs to catch up, but because the footage deviated script and it needs to be redone to match the original intention. This means that many of the common stumbling blocks seen in movies as a result of the reshoots, particularly in the story department, aren't an issue here. In fact, since the reshoots are occurring as an extension of principal photography, there's not even a risk of anyone's haircut not matching between takes.
All that being said, it's very important to separate the traditionally negative perception of reshoots with what's going on with The Untitled Han Solo Movie. Reshoots shouldn't be an inherently bad word in the first place. Reshoots happen with almost every movie, and they're an important part of the production. Sure, sometimes they signal fundamental issues with a movie, but that's not the case here. The fact that Ron Howard is redoing such a significant chunk of the movie is truly turning it into a Ron Howard Star Wars movie, a prospect that would have excited many fans before the whole Lord & Miller kerfuffle. This "back to (almost) square one" mentality means the Han Solo movie is going to be as close to a singular vision as possible instead of some sort of Frankensteined course correction where fans spend the next decade picking apart which parts were shot by Howard and which weren't.
The nearly seamless transition between Lord & Miller and Ron Howard ideally means the movie itself will also be without seams, suggesting that next May we'll have the opportunity to buy tickets to a Star Wars movie directed by Ron Howard, starring the kid from Hail Caesar, The Mother of Dragons herself, Woody Harrelson (who needs no special title), Maeve Millay - the baddest host in Westworld, and Troy Barnes as Lando, also featuring the cinematography of the guy that shot Arrival and all written by Mister Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark himself, Lawrence Kasdan.
The path Lucasfilm took to get to this place was needlessly complicated and doubtlessly wasteful (incredibly so based on the amount being reshot), but when it's all said and done, they've put the pieces together for what could be an amazing Star Wars movie. With the recent news that Colin Trevorrow has been removed as director of Episode IX, that brings the total number of Star Wars movies that have lost a director to 3 out of the 5 currently released or slated. So long as Lucasfilm continues to shatter box office records and garner positive reviews they'll likely escape too much criticism for this practice, but their ability to vet directors earlier in the process clearly needs work as it's not sustainable and is already driving some potential directors away since it's become clear that only a certain type of personality can work in Lucasfilm's system.
