10 Movies That Changed Drastically Midway Through Production

6. Solo: A Star Wars Story

Han Solo Movie
Disney

A Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford was always going to be a risky play, and while it would've been reasonable for Disney and Lucasfilm to expect problems with the fans, they probably didn't anticipate the insane production problems the spinoff was unlucky enough to encounter.

Things actually started off beautifully, with the exciting duo of Lord and Miller hired to direct the film. Sadly, they left the project in mid-2017 after the dreaded "creative differences" ripped through the production like a bullet. Ron Howard was brought in to steady the ship, and the amount of changes he and Lucasfilm were forced to make were huge.

Reportedly, the film Lord and Miller were making leaned heavily on the comedy, a style the directors were known for. However, Lucasfilm wanted things to be played more straight, and this meant that a lot of Lord and Miller's footage had to be thrown out and filmed again. Howard reportedly re-shot around 70% of the film, including cutting a character played by Michael K. Williams, and substantially toning down the comedy.

Lord and Miller's set was more improvisational and freestyle, which would've resulted in an offbeat tone not a million miles away from their Jump Street and LEGO movies. But the Howard version essentially booted all of that to one side, adding a pinch of comedy rather than a bucket-load, leading to a more conventional Star Wars movie.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!