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Last Jedi's Rian Johnson Reviews Solo: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson shares his thoughts on Solo: A Star Wars Story following the film's premiere this week. Johnson, of course, is the creative force behind the eighth film in the mainline Skywalker saga, which released only a few months ago. And, while Johnson no longer has any input regarding core Star Wars saga, he's not done with Lucasfilm's galaxy far, far away just yet; he's now working on an entire new Star Wars trilogy apart from Skywalker storyline.
Of course, one of the benefits of being part of the Star Wars family, especially in a creative position, is being (somewhat) privy to what's going on with other Star Wars films, including the anthology films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story. In February, Johnson praised Solo's first trailer, and he even let on that he'd already seen much if not all of the film. But now that Solo has officially premiered, Johnson has had the opportunity to experience the film on the big screen - and he loves what he's seen.
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According to EW, Johnson has penned his thoughts in an Instagram story. Taking on the big question of whether star Alden Ehrenreich makes the character of Han Solo his own, Johnson says, "[Ehrenreich is] not doing a Harrison Ford impersonation, but he brings his own charm and swagger to the character." Johnson also noted the "big surprise" was Phoebe Waller-Bridge, saying her voice portrayal of Lando Calrissian's droid sidekick L3 “has a few of the funniest moments I’ve ever seen in a Star Wars movie.” On the whole, Johnson called Solo a "super fun" film.
Johnson's enthusiasm should come as good news to Star Wars fans, especially in light of the film's troubled production, in which co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired and replaced with Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard. While it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that a member of the Star Wars family is supporting the latest effort in the Star Wars universe (even Johnson wrote that he doubts people would take his thoughts on the film seriously), there's still encouragement in that he has come out in praise of the movie instead of saying nothing at all (thus leading people to draw their own conclusions). Lucky for Johnson, he's not alone in his thoughts about the film; Mark Hamill also praised Solo and the movie's first reactions have been mostly positive thus far.
Solo: A Star Wars Story's true quality, however, will be determined when the film's review embargo lifts and, again, when the movie opens worldwide later this month. While critics were largely impressed with The Last Jedi, fans were split and took issue with some of Johnson's creative decisions. No matter what fans think of Solo, though, the film's release is bound to take the intense fan focus off of Johnson and place it on Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, and the rest of Solo's cast and crew.
