Vanity Fair's Anthony Breznican has a huge writeup about the current state of Star Wars, Lucasfilm, and the upcoming Obi Wan Kenobi show on Disney+. It's a lengthy writeup featuring interviews with many castmembers of various shows. However, this quote from Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm misses the mark.
The 2018 movie Solo explored Han Solo’s younger years, with Alden Ehrenreich taking on the role of the smuggler originated by Harrison Ford. The film has its admirers, but it made less at the box office than any other live-action Star Wars movie. Solo’s swagger may be too singular for another actor to replicate. “There should be moments along the way when you learn things,” says Kennedy. “Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.”
Vanity Fair
I'll be the first to admit that Solo was not a movie for me. I was interested in it but left the theater underwhelmed. The best way I could describe it: Solo feels like a series of scenes instead of a cohesive film. But, I had zero problem with the casting. Alden Ehrenreich was great as Han Solo. Donald Glover was amazing as Lando. These actors gave it their all.
The problem with Solo was a combination of things. Firstly a midflight change in directors. Originally Solo was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller but at the 11th hour it was given to Ron Howard. This was not a secret, but showed a lack of direction with the film. It was delayed and retooled. The story was lackluster and in no way did the narrative convey anything resembling emotion. Worse, it answered questions nobody was asking. Finally, we were approaching Star Wars burnout with a new movie dropping every year. For the first time, Star Wars was starting to not feel special.
It's disappointing that Kathleen Kennedy thinks a wonderful actor was the problem with Solo. CGI de-aging can be done well and I'm sure it will become a permanent fixture in moviemaking (with the permission of the talent). However, she misses the mark in why Solo missed the mark. One only needs to look at Rogue One as to how a Star Wars movie NOT part of the Skywalker Saga can be incredibly entertaining.