We haven’t heard anything from Phil Lord and Chris Miller since they were unceremoniously dumped from directing Solo: A Star Wars Story. It was reported the directors’ style, which heavily emphasized comedy the way their 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie did, simply didn’t mesh with what Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm were looking for. That coupled with mounting frustration on all sides led to their dismissal, with Ron Howard stepping in to basically start over and make the movie Lucasfilm wants.
That must’ve sucked, right? Lord and Miller have finally opened up, just a little, about what happened and they admit a disconnect between their vision and Kennedy’s expectations.
“The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful,” Lord said. “We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. I think in terms of us leaving the project, I think everybody went in with really good intentions and our approach to making the movie was different than theirs. That was a really big gap to bridge, and it proved to be too big.”
“Sometimes people break up, and it’s really sad, and it’s really disappointing, but it happens and we learned a lot from our collaborators and we’re better filmmakers for it. We’re really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best.”
The duo have plenty on their plate, anyway. They spoke at a Vulture festival to promote their upcoming MTV animated series, Clone High, plus they have the animated Spider-Man movie coming next year. A sequel to The Lego Movie is also on the block for 2019.
