Ron Howard reveals Harrison Ford’s honest reaction to 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'
Harrison Ford enjoyed Solo: A Star Wars Story “very much,” according to its director Ron Howard.
Howard was brought in to oversee the Star Wars prequel after the original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired during production due to creative differences.
The resulting film was deemed somewhat underwhelming, grossing just £299 million ($393.2 million) at the box office, after allegedly costing around £228 million ($300 million) to make, and while it scored 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, most critics felt it was flawed.
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Around the time of its release, Howard revealed that Ford, who originally played Han Solo in the Star Wars trilogy, had already watched the film twice, and had heaped praise on Alden Ehrenreich’s portrayal as the younger version of his character.
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During his recent appearance on the Lights Camera Barstool podcast, Howard opened up a bit more about Ford’s reaction to the film, insisting that his American Graffiti co-star was “very supportive” of Solo, as well as incredibly “gracious and complimentary” to Ehrenreich, too.
“He said some things publicly, but privately, it was really great to see him put his hand on Alden's shoulder and say, 'Great job kid.’ It meant a lot. Alden worked so hard and it was a very high-risk situation for him and he was a cool customer and was really a pleasure to work with, as was that entire cast, they are just a great bunch.”
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Howard is still holding out hope that Ehrenreich will one day return as Solo, too, as he told the same interview that, while there are no current plans for a sequel, the increasingly vocal fan base for the film have helped maintain an “interest in those characters.” So much so that he added, “I think there’s interest in [the] gangster world … somewhere down the line.”