Original Solo directors talk their approach to the Star Wars movie – and their eventual departure

Solo: A Star Wars Story — (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Original Solo directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have opened up on their approach to the Star Wars spin-off – and talked about leaving the project.

The film focuses on Alden Ehrenreich's younger version of Han Solo. Lord and Miller left the movie just under a year before it was due to release, and were replaced by Ron Howard. "Unfortunately, our vision and process weren't aligned with our partners on this project," Lord and Miller said in a statement at the time. "We normally aren't fans of the phrase 'creative differences' but for once this cliche is true. We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew."

Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Lord talked more about the directing duo's time on the movie.

"We've always wanted to make projects that are, like Han, a maverick. And so that's what we were always trying to do, that's what we were hoping to do with those movies," Lord commented. "What's funny about Star Wars [A New Hope] is it's an independent film made outside the Hollywood system. And Han is the spirit of that kind of independence and that's why we were always inspired to work on that with everybody."

As for their departure, it seems there are no hard feelings. "And the good news is, they can't take away what you learned," Lord continued. "We learned so much. We got to work with the greatest people, we made so many friends. We put what we call in animation 'pencil miles' under our belts and it made us better filmmakers in the long run. So, in a funny way, there were some negative emotions associated with that, but the way I feel about it now, like I feel about all these projects, which is you're just trying to become better and learn and collaborate with people and that doesn't go away."

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.