Less than 48 hours after the shock announcement that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller had been let go from the upcoming Han Solo movie, Ron Howard has been officially appointed as their replacement.
Variety confirms that Howard will begin work immediately on the spinoff, which still has a few weeks of principal photography left and five additional weeks of reshoots planned for late summer. But that schedule could be extended, since Howard now needs to review the script and filmed footage to determine whether rewrites and additional reshoots are necessary.
Lord and Miller reportedly clashed with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and longtime Star Wars co-writer/producer Lawrence Kasdan, who took issue with the pair's emphasis on humor and improvisation. Both parties cited "creative differences," but the firing of a director three-quarters of the way through filming is an extreme and almost unprecedented move.
The appointment of Howard, who will also oversee the post-production process, will make the movie's credits very complicated. Lord and Miller may end up not receiving a credit for their work on the film—despite having been attached for two years and filming since February—because the Directors Guild of America frowns upon multiple directors being credited for the same film. It's currently unclear whether Howard will share credit with Lord and Miller, take no credit, or take sole credit.
