After a year off, live-action Star Wars is back in the spotlight. The Book of Boba Fett, despite some rocky moments, has successfully reignited passionate conversations about everybody's favorite galaxy far, far, away. Last week's episode brought in a ton of extremely important and fan-favorite faces, including Cad Bane, Ahsoka Tano, Luke Skywalker, Cobb Vanth, and many more.
Another key player in Boba Fett is the Pyke Syndicate. While initially introduced in Season 5 of The Clone Wars, the bad guys made their first live-action appearance in Solo. It's a film many fans seem to often forget about, but the entry is becoming much more important thanks to the emergence of the spice criminals.
Part of what puts the Han Solo origin story near the bottom of fans' rankings is how rocky the experience was, both in how it was made and the final product. Generally speaking, the reception the film received was lukewarm at best.
While it was directed by Ron Howard, both Phil Lord and Chis Miller were originally set to direct the piece. But due to "creative differences," the duo left the project after having already shot roughly 30% of it.
While they don't often talk about the experience, both Lord and Miller appeared on Josh Horowitz's podcast, where they offered a few comments on what their takeaway from it was.
Lord & Miller's Lucasfilm Firing from Solo
Appearing on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, both Chris Miller and Phil Lord commented on their experience with the Star Wars film Solo, which the two were originally set to direct before parting ways with Lucasfilm.
Miller mentioned that "there were obviously a lot of negative emotions" associated with their dismissal. At the end of the day, they found the silver lining, explaining how they "learned so much... [and] worked with the greatest people," experiences which Lucasfilm "can't take away" from them:
"You know those things are... We've always wanted to make projects that are like [Solo]... so that's what we're always trying to do. What's funny about Star Wars is it's an independent film made outside of the Hollywood system. [Solo] is the spirit of that kind of independence, and that's why we were always inspired to work on that with everybody. The good news is they can't take away what you learned. We learned so much. We got to work with the greatest people. We made so many friends. We put so much [experience] under our belts, and it made us better filmmakers in the long run. So, in a funny way, there were obviously a lot of negative emotions associated with that, but the way I feel about it now is you're just trying to become better and learn and collaborate with people. That doesn't go away."
That Star Wars Experience
It's always sad to see experiences like the one Miller and Lord went through. While fans on the outside are in the dark about what truly went down, at the end of the day, the two excellent directors weren't able to get their vision onto the screen—despite being so close.
Thankfully, their career wasn't hurt in the slightest by it. Their next film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, went on to be extremely successful, with many claiming it to be the best Spidey adventure to date.
While it is unlikely the two will get another shot at Star Wars, maybe the chance will show up thanks to all of the content Lucasfilm is trying to produce. Surely something could use their talents to bring to life. One can dream.
The duo's next project, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part 1), hits theaters on October 7, 2022.
