Donald Glover has talked about what inspired him to return to the Star Wars franchise and work on his forthcoming Lando movie. One of the things that made him join the Lando movie was his kids’ love for ‘the galaxy far, far away.’ In addition, he has ‘enough’ creative control over his upcoming project, which is a positive sign considering how many notable filmmakers have struggled with issues related to creative control in the past when it comes to Star Wars.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Donald Glover talked about his return to Star Wars. “I said yes because I like the characters and my kids love Star Wars. And at this point, I just know when something’s going to be good, because you’re really fighting the industry when you [put your imprint on a franchise of that magnitude]. I feel like I have enough control.”
Many filmmakers who have worked for the Star Wars franchise have faced creative control issues in the last 9-10 years. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) is the epitome of this scenario. Let’s put it this way! The version of Rogue One that we watched in the theatres heavily differs from Gareth Edwards’ vision. Lucasfilm hired Tony Gilroy to rewrite the spin-off’s script and reshot many of the film’s scenes. Rogue One works fine, but it could have been so much better if Edwards had more creative control over it.
Lucasfilm faced a huge backlash from fans when they fired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). The studio removed the highly talented duo in the middle of the film’s production – after they had shot over 50% of the film. Reportedly, Kathleen Kennedy was unhappy with the duo’s vision and script for Solo. As a result, Ron Howard replaced the duo, who presented a passable and forgettable film that did not even try to take some creative risks. In the end, Solo: A Star Wars Story became the first-ever movie in the franchise to tank at the box office, earning only $393 million against its mammoth budget of $275-330 million.
Limited creative control provided by Disney and Lucasfilm for Star Wars projects also resulted in the firing of Colin Trevorrow, the initial helmer of Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. His story for the project failed to get approval from both production houses. This resulted in J. J. Abrams replacing Trevorrow for Episode IX. Well, we all know what happened after that! The Rise of Skywalker turned out to be worse than Solo: A Star Wars Story. Instead of giving the fans an original and imaginative storyline, Episode IX relied heavily on fan service. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film sits with a ‘rotten’ 51% score, based on over 520 reviews.
More details about the upcoming Star Wars Lando movie will surface soon. Apart from Donald Glover, it remains unclear who will return to the franchise. The project may feature the return of Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra and Alden Ehrenreich’s Han Solo. Stay tuned for more updates.
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