Been gone for weeks and have no interest in reading what some of you guys have said about this whole kerfuffle (can only imagine it’s a lot of people who had no faith in the directors to begin with now all worked up that they aren’t involved - basically, people being negative for the sake of it).
I’ll just say this, I’m honestly pretty disappointed. Lord and Miller are a couple of really talented guys so it’s a shame I won’t get to see their vision of the film.
As for my take on what went down, I guess the undeniable bottom line is that LFL simply had a different vision, and it is their property. Now, why they didn’t realize that their visions didn’t align is a different matter. I guess they were just mistaken. LFL for the most part has been very hands off with the directors (Edwards being the only iffy one but I tend to think that was a consensual collaboration that’s been sensationalized), and I think at the outset they wanted to be with Lord/Miller, and for the longest time they thought that’d work. But I think Lord/Miller assumed they had more leeway than they had, and when they started making on set improv changes that tonally and narratively affected the character and story itself flags went up. Ultimately, my presumption is that Kennedy could have lived with it, but it was Kasdan that took major issue. As the screenwriter, and as a major voice in 3/4 of Han Solo’s previous live action incarnations, Kasdan had a very specific idea of what he wanted this character and story to be, and when Lord/Miller found their take evolving on set, Kasdan used his power as a producer to ultimately out them. In my mind, that’s what makes sense. It’s unfortunate, but I get how it happened. Personally, I think firing Lord/Miller was a mistake, but what the fuck do I know? Basically nothing, none of us do.
Ultimately, oddly enough, I don’t think this really bodes too poorly for the final film. Ron Howard is nothing if not reliable (in fact, the only Oscar winner to direct a SW film). It is a shame, and I can’t say I’m as excited for it now as I was, but I still think it’ll be solid entertainment at the least (like Rogue One). At the end of the day, I do trust Kennedy. Why the fuck wouldn’t I? If you think we shouldn’t, check her credits again. She is almost undeniably one of the best film producers of all time. I think she knows what she’s doing.