A Heroic Ron Howard Is Taking Over as Director of the ‘Young Han Solo’ Star Wars Spinoff

Now if we can just get Tom Hanks on board as a Jedi master…

That was fast. Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard is taking over directing duties for the “Young Han Solo” project after directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller seemingly said ‘fuck it’ and left five months into production. 

StarWars.com published the announcement about Howard taking the reins on Thursday:

Lucasfilm is pleased to announce that Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard has been named director of the untitled Han Solo film.

“At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began forty years ago,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film. We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew, and the absolute commitment to make a great movie. Filming will resume the 10th of July.”

Howard may be one of the biggest names to ever helm a Star Wars franchise film. Deadline reports that the director wasn’t just asked to do it, but he put himself out there for the job and “had been working out a deal since the other filmmakers were let go.” 

In a 2013 interview with Maxim, Howard said he is “very character-driven, reality-based, and into celebrations of human cooperation.” 

We’re looking forward to seeing what he can do with human-alien cooperation.

The Han Solo project, which stars Alden Ehrenreich as Solo and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, still lacks an official title. It’s set to premiere in theaters everywhere on May 25, 2018.