Could Reshoots on 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Delay the May Release?

Reshoots are a normal thing for big blockbuster studio movies, but three months before release? That’s cutting it fairly close. And that’s the rumor surrounding Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The Han Solo origin movie — which already underwent a change of directors when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie) were canned and replaced by Oscar-winner Ron Howard in June — is currently rumored for more reshoots from the end of January until “three weeks or so” into February, just three months before the film’s May release date.

On Tuesday, on Reddit’s r/StarWarsLeaks, a poster named Hufflepuffins shared a second-hand update regarding the status of Solo, now under the direction of Ron Howard. Hufflepuffins said reshoots for Solo are happening “from the end of January and will be going on for three weeks or so into Feb (at least).” Though Hufflepuffins even says this is not “huge news,” it’s still “something.”

Big movies such as Star Wars regularly undergo reshoots, especially when there has been a change in directors, in the case of Solo. But it is interesting that Solo reshoots are happening close to the film’s May release, and the (also rumored) troubled production of Solo is only made clearer with the reshoots.

But Solo isn’t the only film characterized by an alleged difficult production phase and significant reshoots. Last year, Justice League underwent reshoots after Zack Snyder left production due to personal family matters. The Avengers director and Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who was already set to participate in the reshoots, took over Snyder as director, and reshoots happened as close as 75 days until release.

Elsewhere in the Star Wars franchise, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also had big reshoots, with a new writer and a new director picking up where the original team left off. For the reshoots, original director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and screenwriter Chris Weitz (Cinderella) were replaced by Oscar-nominated director Tony Gilroy. And you know what was added in those reshoots? The Darth Vader scene. So maybe all of this work into Solo will be worth it.

Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released on May 25, 2018. For any anyway.