Skip to main content

Kathleen Kennedy's Solo Recast Comment Confirms Our Worst Fears

Kathleen Kennedy's comments about recasting Star Wars legacy characters as they did with Han Solo doesn’t bode well for the long-term future of the franchise. Alden Ehrenreich was recast as a young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story, replacing Harrison Ford for the prequel. The movie had a troubled production, with Ron Howard reshooting a large portion of the film after original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired over creative differences with Lucasfilm. Solo: A Star Wars Story failed to recoup its mammoth budget, becoming Star Wars' first bomb. Kathleen Kennedy's comments though suggest that Solo's failure is being attributed primarily to Han Solo being recast.

Prior to Solo: A Star Wars Story Lucasfilm had been experimenting with CGI performances for the Star Wars legacy characters. Grand Moff Tarkin was brought back for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with deceased actor Peter Cushing's face being superimposed over stand-in actor Guy Henry's. The same effect was repeated for Princess Leia in Rogue One, and again in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Luke Skywalker though has had the most CGI face time, with de-aged appearances in The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett. As Lucasfilm is making so much content around the original Star Wars trilogy, this preference towards CGI for Star Wars legacy characters will probably continue. In light of this, Han Solo being recast seems out of place, with Kathleen Kennedy saying "There should be moments along the way when you learn things. Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that."

Related: How Mark Hamill Was De-aged For Young Luke Skywalker In Mandalorian

Though the deepfake and de-aging technology is an amazing tool for filmmakers to play with, it shouldn't become the go-to answer for the Star Wars legacy characters in the future. Despite Solo: A Star Wars Story's shortcomings, Alden Ehrenreich was very good as a young Han Solo. There is no reason why he couldn't continue to play the character in future Star Wars movies and projects. More worrying though is the assumption that in principle recasting Han Solo was a bad decision. Though Harrison Ford casts a big shadow, Han Solo as a character is part of an ensemble, and if James Bond and Batman can be played by multiple actors over the years, the same is true for Han Solo.

Though Luke’s CGI in The Book of Boba Fett was much better than in The Mandalorian, there is still an uncanny valley quality to it that can be distracting if the audience focuses on the effect rather than the performance. It works best in short doses, giving viewers a quick nostalgia hit seeing a 20-something Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher. However, the effect can't (and shouldn’t) be sustained over the course of a Star Wars movie or tv series. Films such as The Irishman or Captain Marvel had the benefit of Robert De Niro's and Samuel L. Jackson's real-life performances, which were then enhanced by CGI. Conversely, the CGI Star Wars legacy characters are primarily deep-fake digital performances with stand-ins, reference footage, and old voice recordings, all manipulated by the computer. It's impressive, but it lacks the creative nuances that an actor in the moment can bring to a performance. For better or worse, Alden Ehrenreich brought that to Han Solo.

If the deepfake technology were around at the time George Lucas was making the Star Wars prequels, then conceivably a CGI young Alec Guinness could have been Obi-Wan rather than Ewan McGregor being recast. It's a bad road to commit Star Wars to, as it ties the franchise down to one interpretation of the characters. While it helps with establishing continuity, it also hinders creative growth. Star Wars will be around for generations to come, and eventually Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and the rest of the legacy characters will need to be recast properly in order for the filmmakers of the future to tell new Star Wars stories.

Next: Star Wars Is Finally Making Solo Matter



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Is Billy? Black Christmas 1974's Ending Explained

Bob Clark's 1974 horror film Black Christmas is one of the most influential slasher movies of all time, and it has an unforgettably chilling ending. In Black Christmas Billy is considered the villain as he picks off victims one by one, and after almost 50 years, his identity is still debated. The story takes place in a sorority house, where the residents are throwing a Christmas party before they depart. Little do they know, however, that a perverted killer has made his way into the house, and is preparing to pick them off one by one. The Billy Black Christmas character remains in the shadows for most of the movie, that is, until the chilling ending.
Post a Comment
Read more

Every Actress Who Played Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Ranked

Author  Agatha Christie 's Miss Marple is one of the most iconic and celebrated literary sleuths of all time. The amateur investigator was first introduced in the 1930 novel Murder at the Vicarage , appearing in 11 subsequent novels up until 1976. The character has been portrayed on the stage, on radio, and for our purposes, on the big and small screen several times since the character's screen debut in 1961. Over the past 60 years, Miss Marple has been portrayed by several actresses, many of whom hail from different parts of the world. To see who did Miss Marple the most justice on screen, scroll below. Updated July 21st, 2022 by George Chrysostomou:  Agatha Christie's works are still influencing the industry today and Miss Marple is among her most famous creations. With the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion , taking the audience back to the genre, it's well worth checking out these classic portrayals of one of the best detectives out there featuring some fantastic Mis...
Post a Comment
Read more

Demonologist: How to Find Every Finger Location (& What They’re For)

Players need to find the location of five Fingers in Demonologist 's abandoned house to exorcise a ghost haunting the place, finishing every objective on the map to defeat this supernatural enemy. Given the chaotic nature of this horror game, it can be hard for players to look for these small fingers on such a large map. There are also some tasks that need to be completed before players are even able to start looking for these items in the first place.
Post a Comment
Read more