Here’s an odd statement, but it looks like Lucasfilm may have learned the wrong lessons from 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film was generally positively reviewed and people highlighted the casting of Alden Ehrenreich as a highlight of the film. It sadly didn’t perform like other entries in the franchise, but still pulled in a respectable $393M worldwide.
Yet, it seems that something was missing for Lucasfilm and it is the reason they didn’t recast Mark Hamill‘s Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian‘s second season finale. In the new Vanity Fair piece, Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy had the following to say on what they’ve learned from that film:
There should be moments along the way when you learn things. Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.
Kathleen Kennedy
It seems they believed that Ehrenreich didn’t quite capture the “swagger” that made Harrison Ford‘s take on the character stand out as much as it did throughout the years. Yet, one could argue that there were other factors that had a negative influence on the film’s performance and it’s strange to focus on the recasting.
While it’s special to see Mark Hamill return to the role of Skywalker, the technology still has its limitations, especially with a smaller budget than film production. It still had many excited when he arrived in The Mandalorian, but there were still some aspects that may feel like it’s part of the uncanny valley. Plus, it also highly restricts what stories they can tell with characters that would otherwise have lived during that era.
Source: Vanity Fair, Rotten Tomatoes
