'Solo' Teaches Lucasfilm They Can't Recast Iconic Star Wars Characters

[Bespin refugee]

 

Despite some positive responses from fans, as well as, director Ron Howard, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy tells Vanity Fair the disappointing box-office results for 2018's Solo, has taught them not to recast the iconic characters.

“There should be moments along the way when you learn things,” Kennedy sad. “Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”

(Source: Variety)

[Bespin refugee]

I understand what they're trying to say, but, it seems really ironic to say this with Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi a little over a week away (featuring, a number of *technically* recast OT characters) and a cover story spotlighting 'recast' versions of Ahsoka, Kenobi, and Mon Mothma

 

I also have trouble blaming the film's 'failure' on Alden's casting as Han Solo. Again, the film was released 6 months after 'The Last Jedi'

[Zachatello]

I agree. I don't think Solo's casting was the problem at all. Alden did his homework on Harrison Ford, and Donald Glover was a perfect choice for young Lando, if you ask this scruffy lookin' nerf-herder. Besides that, I think we can all agree that stories featuring younger versions (or older versions) of iconic characters requires a bit of suspended belief from the fans. Maybe you disagree with that, but again, I don't think Solo's problems were it's cast choices, but the writing. In addition to that, Star Wars fans such as myself were already sensing that the well had been poisoned after The Last Jedi, so that certainly didn't help things. 

I'm all for re-casting. In fact, I really wish Lucasfilm would recast Kathleen Kennedy. 

[MandoMuggle]

36 minutes ago, Zachatello said:

I agree. I don't think Solo's casting was the problem at all. Alden did his homework on Harrison Ford, and Donald Glover was a perfect choice for young Lando, if you ask this scruffy lookin' nerf-herder. Besides that, I think we can all agree that stories featuring younger versions (or older versions) of iconic characters requires a bit of suspended belief from the fans. Maybe you disagree with that, but again, I don't think Solo's problems were it's cast choices, but the writing. In addition to that, Star Wars fans such as myself were already sensing that the well had been poisoned after The Last Jedi, so that certainly didn't help things. 

I'm all for re-casting. In fact, I really wish Lucasfilm would recast Kathleen Kennedy. 

Lol, agreed. 

I don’t understand the leverage she has thats allowed her to stay in role at Lucasfilm for so long.

[LordVenger]

Solo casting was definitely not the issue.  And she clearly hasn’t “learned “ anything. 

[Conflims]

In general, it is very strange that such a series, which brought a lot of money and love of fans, has become essentially a cash cow for pumping out money. It seems to me that the best solution would be to roll back to the point where it didn't go so badly. We've been told since high school that the plot of a work is important and if it's a series it's worth sticking to the canon. We once had to write an essay on works like this where it seems like the series is the same but the plots and characters are different. I'm really bad at it, so I used https://edubirdie.com/write-my-essay-for-me as a backup. It didn't occur to me at the time that it would be possible to describe the Star Wars situation. 

[MagnaPrime]

I knew they were gonna learn the wrong lesson.  This movie is great.  Though I wish they'd stuck a little closer to some of the legends canon.  But they didn't promote it well.  They didn't take into account market saturation.  And it was sandwiched between Deadpool 2 and Avengers.  A Lando series would be amazing with Glover.