I love when a tiny behind the scenes detail unlocks the whole vibe of a movie. Ron Howard says that before he agreed to take over Solo: A Star Wars Story, he called George Lucas for a little guidance. Lucas kept it simple: “Just do not forget — it is for 12-year-old boys.” Howard says that was the line that framed his approach.
Howard shared this in an interview with Vulture, and it really gives you a new perspective on how he approached the film.
Here’s how it all went down.
Howard wasn’t originally supposed to direct Solo. The movie was in the hands of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind The LEGO Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But partway through filming, Lucasfilm felt the tone wasn’t working and made the tough decision to part ways with the original directors.
As Ron Howard told Vulture, he was actually on vacation in Paris with his wife when things shifted. He headed to London for a Hans Zimmer concert and reached out to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy just to say hello. She invited him to breakfast — and that’s when the conversation took a turn.
Howard said, “We had breakfast, and she said, ‘Do you want to come to breakfast?’ And I said, ‘Okay.’” At that breakfast meeting were Kennedy, producer Allison Shearmur, and screenwriter Jon Kasdan. According to Howard, they told him directly:
“We’ve reached a creative impasse with Lord and Miller. Would you ever consider coming in?”
He didn’t say yes immediately. Instead, Howard asked to see some of the existing footage to get a feel for what had been shot. And while watching those early scenes, he started to understand what Lucasfilm was concerned about.
Still unsure, Howard reached out to the one person who’d always had the clearest vision of what Star Wars should be — George Lucas.
“I talked to [Lucas] once early, when I was just thinking about doing it,” Howard told Vulture.
That one piece of advice captures everything about Star Wars at its core. Lucas didn’t mean the movie had to be childish — he meant it should feel like a bold, imaginative, pulpy space adventure. Star Wars was always designed to hit that sweet spot where fun, emotion, and mythic storytelling meet — the kind of story that lights up your brain when you’re twelve and stays with you forever.
Even if Solo didn’t become a box office smash, that context gives it a different kind of charm. Howard took on an incredibly difficult situation and steered the movie with Lucas’s words in mind.