Late last month, production on Disney and Lucasfilm’s Han Solo spinoff ground to a halt after the abrupt firing of erstwhile directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
It’s an announcement that not only sent shockwaves through the Star Wars community, but also the industry itself, and the entire ordeal had echoes of those scathing rumors that plagued Rogue One: A Star Wars Story mid-way through filming. Bringing an end to the drama almost as quickly as it began, Disney then appointed the Oscar-winning Ron Howard in place of Lord and Miller, and production has now resumed ahead of the movie’s expected release in May of 2018. Providing Disney and Howard can make that initial deadline, of course.
With nary a mention of the film codenamed Solo at D23 this past weekend, it’s clear that all involved have their nose to the grindstone, so don’t expect to see any official footage of the Han Solo origin story for another few months at least. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that fans will have to endure a lengthy radio silence, as director Ron Howard has now taken to Instagram to share the latest photo from the set – and it’s one that you’re definitely going to want to take a closer look at.
Seen above, the director posted a shot of his monitor and though we can’t say with 100% certainty that this is Donald Glover in character as Lando Calrissian, it definitely looks like it is. Or at least, that’s the general consensus on the web, and while the image is blurry and far from a great photo, this could very well be our first glimpse of the young Lando, which is certainly exciting.
After all, we’ve yet to really see anything from the in-development spinoff, and at this stage, we’ll take what we can get. Especially since it’ll probably be a little while longer before the marketing campaign kicks off in earnest. That’s because Disney’s got another project on the horizon that’s taking priority right now.
Make no mistake about it, though, once Star Wars: The Last Jedi has its time in the sun this December, all eyes will begin to turn toward Ron Howard’s anthology film in the hope of a compelling, entertaining Han Solo origin story. We’ll find out whether that is indeed the case on May 25th, 2018.