Ron Howard, the director of Solo: A Star Wars Story, says that creator George Lucas warned him about the nature of Star Wars fans.
While Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story wasn’t detested by fans, it certainly didn’t perform as well as people would have liked.
Unfortunately, some Star Wars fans are some of the most fickle around and can even be particularly toxic on occasion.
The nature of these hugely passionate fans has been felt by many a director, from Rian Johnson to even creator of the franchise himself George Lucas. Lucas was lambasted by fans during the prequel era for the direction the franchise took but now Lucas is thought of much more warmly.
Ron Howard, luckily, received some great advice from Lucas before making Solo, with George telling him that he should be aware of what the fanbase is like.
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Speaking to Collider, Howard said:
“It doesn’t happen on every movie with that kind of intensity, but it sort of goes with the territory when you have a really high-level intellectual property, there was a bit of that when I did [How the Grinch Stole Christmas] 20 years ago. George Lucas is a mentor, a tremendous friend. He warned me, and he’s always said, ‘It’s for the fans, yet you have to have the courage to hear them but tell the story you want to tell.'”
Howard then added: “He’s all for the galaxy expanding and experimenting. That’s what he prefers the most. He gets most excited about those that want to push the boundaries of a Star Wars movie or a TV show. And he always contemplated TV shows, he did animated [series], so I was sort of prepared for it.”
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It’s certainly the case that whoever takes on a Star Wars project in the future must be prepared for the fickle nature of the fandom. Hopefully, the more toxic behaviour dies away in the near future.
