Is The Han Solo Movie In More Trouble Than We Thought?

5. LucasFilm Don't Want Different At The Same Time As Wanting Different

The big confusion around Miller and Lord being moved on centres on the apparent agenda within Lucasfilm to make the Anthology films different to the mainline of movies. That much was established with Rogue One, with a war movie spirit suggested at first that didn't seem to translate into the final film thanks to those notorious reshoots.

So what do Lucasfilm actually want? Do they want to push creativity and a move away from the core Star Wars spirit in a way that still pays homage to it? Or do they want to pay no more than lip-service to that agenda while trotting out identikit Star Wars movies?

Not even a year ago, Kennedy was talking to THR about the approach to hiring new directors, that seemed to suggest they're still looking for creativity. She said that within major franchises, it is possible to “take artistic license and creative risks."

"If all you're doing is playing it safe — trying to make the same movie over and over again — that's when the audiences say, 'Oh, this is just a moneymaking machine.’ But if it's genuinely in service to the art form, then the franchise concept is being used in a way that's exciting.”

How does that really mesh with the tale of Miller and Lord railing against the restrictions on them? Is Kennedy really talking about "not playing it safe" or actually something more like the pretence of "not playing it safe"?

Is It Really All That Concerning?

Well to pose another question: since when did something being like Star Wars make it bad? Unfortunately, Kennedy and Lucasfilm will have those comments about not playing it safe held over them for years and the earlier comments about the Anthology films changing the tone up.

If anything, the only issue is that they shouldn't have been publicly broadcast, even if Kennedy was merely trying to stop fans thinking those films were no more than moneymaking exercises.