JM McNab
Legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan has penned some of the greatest films of all-time; The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the best movie to feature a scene in which Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston slow dance in a country bar.
More recently, Kasdan directed the Disney+ documentary series Light & Magic, all about Industrial Light & Magic, the company that tricked us all into thinking that X-Wings, dinosaurs, and necromanced children who tragically died of pneumonia were totally real. In promoting the show, Kasdan was asked about Solo, the 2018 Star Wars prequel he co-wrote. Contrary to rumors, Kasdan claims that there are no plans to continue Solo as a streaming TV show – but he said that he would be interested in making another movie. Which … they should do?
Look, obviously Solo was fraught with production-related drama, and it wasn’t perfect – in addition to Han getting his surname from an Imperial TSA agent, we weren’t thrilled with the whole “Han Solo bankrolled the Rebellion” twist. But when the guy who wrote Empire and Return of the Jedi asks to make another Star Wars movie, maybe you should let him? While the first one was considered a box office disappointment, it was likely a victim of Star Wars fatigue, coming just months after The Last Jedi. Whereas, these days, the Star Wars movie pipeline seems pretty slim, after several highly-publicized projects have seemingly fallen apart behind the scenes.
Perhaps most importantly, Solo ended on a giant cliffhanger, making it one of the most glaring lingering narrative threads in Star Wars history.
And while Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy made controversial comments critical of recasting “legacy characters” arguably the performances were a highlight of Solo; Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover, not unlike Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan, captured the vibe of a young Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams, without resorting to imitation. And other sci-fi franchises like Star Trek have illustrated the benefits of putting new actors in iconic roles. So really, there’s no good reason not to try again with a Solo movie – but unlike some other Lucasfilm properties, maybe don’t include a framing device where Harrison Ford plays the saxophone.
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Thumbnail: Lucasfilm
