Rian Johnson Reviews “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

Rian Johnson, director of the last Star Wars movie, has taken some time to give his thoughts about its newest entry, Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The new movie is the second in the franchise’s Anthology series, focusing on story outside of the main “Trilogies.” This one is a prequel dealing with the early career of Han Solo, the sarcastic rogue famously played by Harrison Ford in previous films.

As reported in The Verge, the director of last year’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi posted his thoughts on Instagram Story. He praised star Alden Ehrenreich, saying that he is “not doing a Harrison Ford impersonation, but he brings his own charm and swagger to the character.”

Johnson says that his biggest surprise, however, was Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who voices a droid named L3, who is owned by Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover, replacing Billy Dee Williams). The actress “has a few of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen in a Star Wars movie,” he wrote, and overall described the film as “super fun.”

This could be encouraging for fans, some of whom must be worried because of the movie’s troubled production. It was originally directed by the team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie), but the two clashed with the studio and were replaced by Ron Howard, who reshot huge parts of the movie. While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story had similar issues, movies like Fantastic Four and Suicide Squad have taught fans to fear those kinds of problems.

Of course, Johnson is fairly controversial in the fandom himself; The Last Jedi turned out to be very “love it or hate it,” with many saying that it felt very different from a traditional Star Wars film. If you are one of the people who disliked his movie, his praise may not be particularly encouraging.

Then again, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) has also praised Solo, and overall fans seem to be excited about it. The movie comes out on May 25 and has already gotten very high presale numbers. It is currently under an embargo, so for now fans will have to wait until that lifts for a more “formal” review, or wait until it comes out to see if for themselves.