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Don’t get your hopes up for a Solo follow-up on Disney+

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Let’s not beat around the bush here: Nobody asked for Solo: A Star Wars Story. There was definitely nobody who asked for some of the answers that the 2018 standalone Star Wars film went out of its way to provide (why did we need to know that Han Solo’s name wasn’t actually his name?!). Then there was all the on-set controversy as director Ron Howard replaced the fired Phil Lord and Chris Miller late in production. But despite all of that, Solo actually ended up being a surprisingly fun and polished movie. Unfortunately, it was also the first commercial flop in Star Wars history.

Blame it on the backlash to The Last Jedi, the oversaturation of the release calendar, the lack of pre-release interest from fans, the ah-ahah-ah-ah-alcohol or whatever other reason you can come up with. The fact is that Solo made less than $400 million worldwide on a production budget reported to be as high as $300 million. Factor in advertising costs and it means that the film lost Disney hundreds of millions of dollars and forced the company to change its entire release strategy for the Star Wars franchise. A strategy that now no longer included theatrical sequels to Solo despite that film’s ending setting up one seriously exciting tease for the future (DARTH MAUL IS BACK and Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra is actually working for him!). But while we won’t get to see Alden Ehrenreich continue his adventures on the big screen, surely releasing a follow-up movie or even limited series on Disney+ would be the perfect solution, right?

Unfortunately not, as Solo co-writer Joe Kasdan (who is also working on the upcoming Indiana Jones 5) burst some bubbles when responding to a fan on Twitter about continuing the story that had been left on a cliffhanger.

Kasdan has a point in that currently the House of Mouse already has sufficient Star Wars plans for Disney+. The second season of The Mandalorian will be with us later this year (and maybe even lead to an Ahsoka Tano live-action series), the long-gestating Obi-Wan Kenobi prequel series is moving ahead with Joby Harald tapped as the new writer, and a planned spy-centric prequel series following Rogue One’s Cassian Andor. If any of these shows will be boasting the same level of massive-budget polish that The Mandalorian does, then it’s completely understandable that even a giant corp like Disney wouldn’t have the extra capacity.

I seriously would like the story of Solo to be completed though, as that final tease was just so damn tantalizing. So if I were a betting man, I would put money down on Disney eventually getting back to this via the Star Wars comics published by Marvel. That bypasses all the logistical restrictions – cast availability, budget, timelines – and lets them make the story as big as they want. I would be down for that.

Last Updated: April 3, 2020

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