Ron Howard saw 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' as a "creative experiment."
Ron Howard
The 64-year-old filmmaker took over as director of the spin-off - which centres on the life of a young Han Solo before he teams up with Luke Skywalker in the main series - when Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were let go of over a disagreement and, although he was nervous about taking on such a big role, he saw it as a challenge.
Speaking on Radio 1, he said when asked if he enjoyed directing the movie: "More than I expected to. Partly because I was very grateful for a lot of the ideas that had been established, so there was something that I wasn't a party to or witness, which is this classic case of creative differences.
"But that doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of good ideas. There were also new ideas that I was able to bring to the table. In some instances we'd change stuff a lot, and other instances we'd use elements of what was in place, and something we'd use a scene entirely - and they're brilliant guys.
"For me, it was a kind of creative experiment to build on some cool creative thoughts and some fun ideas that had been launched ahead of me - and under pressure, because I did come in and there was a release date that the studio had in mind."
However, Howard had a huge task ahead when he took on the movie as it had already been given a release date of May 25, 2018.
He explained: "I probably leaned more heavily on my instincts then any other project I've ever done. I wouldn't choose to work this way always, but it was a better creative experience than I expected it to be."
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