Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer Jon Kasdan says a sequel is not in development for Disney+. Released in May 2018, Solo was the second of the standalone Star Wars spinoff anthology films that looked to flesh out the franchise beyond the core Skywalker saga. Despite being plagued by unprecedented production difficulties (infamously replacing original directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller during production), Solo received generally positive reviews upon its premiere. It may not be considered the best Star Wars movie, but the general consensus was it made for an entertaining space heist film, bolstered by Alden Ehrenreich’s performance as a young Han Solo.
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Sadly, that reception didn’t translate into box office success. Solo became the Star Wars property’s first box office bomb, grossing only $392.9 million worldwide against a $275 million budget (a figure extremely inflated due to the extensive reshoots). In the aftermath, Lucasfilm pulled the plug on other spinoffs they were planning, eventually turning the Obi-Wan movie into a TV show for Disney+. However, in the time since Solo’s debut, it’s garnered a passionate fan base campaigning on social media for some sort of followup. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any such project is in the works.
On Twitter, Kasdan responded to a fan question about the status of a Solo 2, casting doubt it will ever come into fruition. Check out his post in the space below:
Don’t think anyone’s pursuing a Solo sequel at the moment @KenobiJj I think a feature, at this point, would be a tough sell & the D+ Star Wars slate is really…pretty packed, all shows I’m lookin forward to. My work on Indy is long over but I’m excited there’s forward movement!
— Jon Kasdan (@JonKasdan) March 30, 2020
This’ll surely be disappointing for Solo fans, but it’s what’s expected. In regard to the movies, there’s little financial incentive for Lucasfilm to make a Solo 2 feature, seeing how poorly Solo fared at the box office. Even though more people are finding (and enjoying) the spinoff on home media, that doesn’t guarantee general audiences would come out in large numbers to see Solo 2 in the theater. Solo was always lacking in mainstream buzz when compared to the other Star Wars movies in the Disney era (for which the Mouse House is partially to blame), so it’s debatable if there’d be proper excitement for a sequel. On-paper, Disney+ reads as a better outlet for Solo 2, but as Kasdan notes, Lucasfilm is in the process of developing a number of series for the streaming service. In addition to The Mandalorian season 2, there are also shows about Cassian Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the pipeline, so the future adventures of Ehrenreich’s Han are not a priority for the studio.
At the same time, there are a couple of threads in Solo that would be worth exploring further – namely the Darth Maul cameo that set up a partnership between the Crimson Dawn leader and Qi’ra. The film also ended with a tease about Han working with Jabba the Hutt, which would be fun to see. There are 10 years on the Star Wars timeline between Solo and A New Hope, meaning there’s plenty of ground to cover if the story group wishes to go in that direction. Perhaps Solo could receive some kind of continuation in a publishing medium, either with a new novel or comic series. That would be a nice way to give fans of the movie what they want amidst everything else Lucasfilm has planned.
Source: Jon Kasdan
