Kathleen Kennedy admits that, in her tenure as president of Lucasfilm, not everyone loved everything. She acknowledges that some Star Wars fans just want the same thing over and over. And, often, those fans can be overly vocal about it. Nevertheless, she’s 100% behind every movie and show she made… with one exception.
Speaking to Deadline as she prepares to hand the reins of the company to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, Kennedy admits that her one regret in her tenure at Lucasfilm was trying to make what ended up being Solo: A Star Wars Story.
“No, I don’t really have any regrets. Well, maybe a bit of regret about Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Kennedy said. “I brought Larry Kasdan in on [it], and we were so excited about that idea. And then when you’re into something, and you realize fundamentally, conceptually, you cannot replace Han Solo, at least right now.”
“As wonderful as Alden Ehrenreich was, and he really was good, and is a wonderful actor, we put him in an impossible situation,” she continued. “And once you’re in it and once you’re committed, you’ve got to carry on. I think I have a bit of regret about that, but not about the moviemaking and filmmaking. I don’t have regrets about that. I just think that conceptually, we did it too soon.”
Kennedy’s honesty is pretty refreshing here, but there’s also another level to it. She specifically says that her regret around Solo doesn’t have to do with “the moviemaking and filmmaking.” Which is odd until you remember that, originally, Phil Lord and Chris Miller were hired to make that movie and were let go during production. Then, Ron Howard came on board to finish it. Kennedy saying she doesn’t regret the filmmaking is a not-so-subtle way of acknowledging one of her most controversial decisions as president of Lucasfilm.
To be fair, though, while Solo is honestly a pretty great movie and a slam dunk of an idea on paper, Kennedy does nail this. Some characters are too iconic, too tied to a singular actor, to pivot from. And Han Solo, as well as Indiana Jones, is probably one of those.
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