I thought they were kind of asking for trouble by doing a young Han Solo movie.
Rogue one worked because frankly they introduced a new cast of characters to TGFFA and then killed them. So there can't be much debate about the characters themselves.
The characters that we know from the original trilogy weren't put in a position to really fail. They used CGA for Leia and Tarkin. Vader's under a mask but I'm betting he got hours of walking lessons. Mon Mothma really didn't have much of a role and they threw in a few pilots.
But can you imagine the nerd rage if this had happened instead of CGI Tarkin?
The movie probably wouldn't have been as well received as it was.
Tarkin worked in TCW's and Rebels because they drew him and then got a voice actor that was a dead knockoff.
With a young Solo movie with familiar characters being played by younger actors, it opens the door for criticism by frame by frame obsessed Star Wars fans who will flail the movie if the actor doesn't portray Ford playing Solo, or Billy Dee Williams playing Lando.
On top of it there's a EU backstory for Solo that's actually pretty good, if they change it the EU Classic Mainiacs will go nuts.
I know they're doing a Bobba Fett movie, but that's easy, Fett is the mask not the man under the mask. And frankly if they wanted to show him without the helmet its pretty easy since we've never seen what adult Fett looks like. We can make a guess that he looks like his dad, but throw some scars on his face and your golden.
I get that there's a common conception that Star Wars is Vader/Anakin, Kenobi, Luke, Leia, Solo etc.
But I honestly think that in a galaxy as vast and timeless as this one that they could really stretch themselves story wise.
Rebels did really well with this, Rogue one did well with this as well. The Ewok stories were terrible.
I know that people are screaming for the story of Palpatine before becoming even a Senator. How did he become a Sith, how was he trained, where does he come from? But making that movie is incredibly dangerous because of the job ht IMcD did. Its the same with the Solo movie, because no matter how good the story is there's going to be the complaint of it sucked because this actor couldn't carry Fords gun belt.
I'd really like to see TGFFA stretched out. Just like at some point, the Sequel Trilogy needs to move out of the shadows of Luke and Leia and become their own thing.
Star Wars: Han Solo's standalone film (Untitled)
