Last week, it was revealed that Solo: A Star Wars Story would have its world premiere at the 71st Cannes Film Festival, joining 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith as the only Star Wars movies to have screened during the festivities. The announcement was a pleasant change from the negatively-spun bulletins that’ve hounded Ron Howard’s space opera ever since he took over the production and has fans feeling cautiously optimistic about the pic.
It’s no secret that Solo has been mired in PR trouble by virtue of Lucasfilm and original co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller parting ways over “creative differences.” Extensive reshoots and criticism of Alden Ehrenreich’s portrayal of the titular protagonist by an unnamed source further fueled the conjecture that Solo won’t live up to the franchise’s standards. The pessimistic speculation has died down, however, and as we grow closer to the film’s release next month, news about Solo: A Star Wars Story has been much more positive.
Yesterday, director and actor Jon Favreau shared some details regarding his character in the movie and just a few days ago, the Ron Howard-helmed space epic released a fantastic new trailer. Now, Lando Calrissian himself, Donald Glover, has detailed in an interview with the Star Wars Show how he celebrated being cast in the role and how he prepared for it.
“The day I found out I got it, I remember I bought a whole pizza and went home and watched The Empire Strikes Back. That was definitely the beginning, but then I just watched a bunch of other cool 70s stuff that I thought would be his kind of style.”
Directed by Ron Howard, Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released on May 25th. Written by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, the film also stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton and Paul Bettany.