Lawrence Kasdan

Lawrence Edward Kasdan came into existence on January 14, 1949, in the location of Miami Beach, Florida.

In 1978, George Lucas engaged Lawrence Kasdan, who was then revising his own Raiders of the Lost Ark script for both Lucas and Steven Spielberg, to finalize the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back following Leigh Brackett's passing. Lucas found Brackett's script unsatisfactory, leading him to draft the next version himself, incorporating the main plot elements and characters but lacking compelling dialogue. Lucas, despite not having read Kasdan's initial Raiders draft, requested a rewrite of Brackett's script upon its delivery. Kasdan suggested Lucas review his Raiders draft first, but Lucas threatened to rescind the offer if he disliked Raiders. Ultimately, Lucas hired Kasdan to co-write subsequent Empire drafts due to a lack of available alternatives. Despite admiring Brackett, Kasdan considered her script somewhat outdated, perceiving a different spirit despite the characters remaining consistent.

Eventually, Lucas decided to read Kasdan's Raiders script and, impressed, hired him almost immediately, as the crew was in pre-production with no script. However, unlike Kasdan's Raiders assignment, Lucas had already conceived the entire story for The Empire Strikes Back and needed Kasdan to finalize the script for approval by Irvin Kershner, the film's director. Fortunately for Lucas, Kasdan admired genre movies and the works of Akira Kurosawa and Howard Hawks, while also being capable of writing playful romance, broad humor, personal intimacies, and imbuing characters with emotional depth. Upon hiring, Lucas informed Kasdan that a key plot point was the revelation of Darth Vader as Luke Skywalker's father, which surprised Kasdan. Unaware of Brackett's contributions to Lucas' draft, Kasdan viewed Lucas' draft as a rough, incomplete version, like a "skeleton for a movie" needing "flesh and muscle." Kasdan aimed to make The Empire Strikes Back darker than the first Star Wars, a decision Lucas supported as he had planned a trajectory for the first three Star Wars films, with The Empire Strikes Back serving as the second act, where protagonists typically face challenges, with Kershner comparing the script's tone to the grim fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

In November 1978, with filming scheduled to begin in five months, Kasdan joined Lucas, Kershner, and producer Gary Kurtz for a story conference. Over the next two weeks, Lucas clarified the purpose of certain scenes, his desired dramatic effects, and ways to improve them, requesting a script no longer than 105 pages. Kasdan and Lucas agreed with Kershner and Kurtz that Empire should address the philosophical themes of the original film concisely, leaving some questions unanswered. Kasdan felt Lucas sometimes rushed scenes, skipping emotional content, a sentiment shared by Kurtz, despite Lucas' belief that action would suffice. Kasdan was more interested in exploring character relationships and eccentricities, while Lucas focused on plot progression. Reading Lucas' drafts, Kasdan found some sections subpar, believing the movie could handle more complexity and character development. After the conference, Kasdan returned to Los Angeles and produced a twenty-five-page draft for Empire. As the script evolved, Kasdan added Zen Buddhism undertones to the Yoda character, amplified by Kershner, a fellow Buddhist. Yoda's distinctive speech patterns were conceived by Kasdan and Lucas, and later developed by Frank Oz. Kasdan created Admiral Piett, believing in giving background characters depth to help viewers identify with them and remind the audience that some Imperials were just doing their jobs. Kasdan completed the Empire shooting script, with minor dialogue changes by Kershner and actors during filming, mostly approved by Lucas. Kasdan initially opposed on-set improvisations but eventually embraced Harrison Ford's "I know" line, despite not writing it.

The Empire Strikes Back premiered on May 21, 1980. Critics praised the film's character development. It also marked Kasdan's first credited film appearance. Retrospectively, Kasdan stated a year later that his main contribution to the Star Wars saga was character development. He also praised Kershner's direction, style, and ability to persuade Lucas to deviate from his plans.

Following The Empire Strikes Back, Kasdan began directing and showed no interest in writing another Star Wars film. However, George Lucas supported him as an uncredited producer for Body Heat, his directorial debut, so Kasdan felt obligated when Lucas asked him to write Return of the Jedi, the sequel to The Empire Strikes Back. At the time, Kasdan was preparing to direct The Big Chill and no longer wrote for others, but he felt Lucas had launched his career and needed his help again. Before rehiring Kasdan, Lucas had also hired Richard Marquand to direct Return of the Jedi as Kershner had read a reduced version of the Jedi script but didn't believe in it, thus losing interest in returning.

On June 12, 1981, after Lucas completed his revised rough draft, Kasdan began writing the shooting script for Return of the Jedi based on Lucas' story. With a rough draft ready, Kasdan attended story meetings with Lucas, Marquand, and producer Howard G. Kazanjian between July 13 and July 17. These meetings significantly altered Lucas' draft, dropping, changing, and expanding ideas. In one meeting, Kasdan and Marquand proposed opening the film with the rescue of Han Solo, a simpler sequence in Lucas' draft, with Kasdan suggesting killing Jabba the Hutt during the sequence. Lucas also suggested Kasdan write a powerful scene featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi as a Force ghost with Shakespearian dialogue for Sir Alec Guinness. To surpass the first film, Lucas initially wrote two Death Stars and Had Abbadon, the Imperial homeworld, but Kasdan suggested combining them into a single threat, leading Lucas to conclude it was impractical to show Vader and the Emperor away from the story and financially impossible to design the Imperial planet. Regarding the Emperor, Lucas wanted to establish him as the saga's true evil, to which Kasdan noted that the Emperor-Vader relationship was one of power and intimidation versus dignity. Lucas also shared early ideas for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, including how the Emperor took over the Galactic Senate and turned Anakin Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, and how everyone could use the Force like the Jedi, comparing it to yoga or karate. After the meetings, Kasdan had a vast transcript of decisions and rejected ideas for the script.

While writing the screenplay, Kasdan felt the film lacked gravity and suggested killing a main character at the start of the final act to create doubt about the heroes' survival. Kasdan suggested killing Luke and having Leia Organa take over, but Lucas refused, recalling his childhood upset when heroes died. Harrison Ford suggested killing Han Solo by having him sacrifice himself for Luke and Leia because he felt his character lacked purpose and family. Kasdan supported Ford, having favored killing Solo since The Empire Strikes Back but felt Return of the Jedi was the right time, but Lucas refused. Another suggestion from Kasdan was to give Anakin Skywalker a grey beard for a touch of normality upon unmasking. Regarding Luke's confrontation with the Emperor, Kasdan suggested Luke pretend to join the Emperor by wearing Darth Vader's mask and firing on Had Abbadon, the Imperial homeworld, instead of destroying the Rebel Alliance's fleet, but this twist was dropped when Had Abaddon was removed. Prior to this, Kasdan argued with Lucas about replacing Endor with the Imperial capital for the climatic battle.

In September 1981, Kasdan delivered his second draft for Return of the Jedi, but revisions continued until November, and a third draft was written in December. Ultimately, Kasdan felt Jedi should combine the fun of the original film with the positive values of the second to emotionally satisfy fans. Regarding the title, Kasdan told Lucas that Return of the Jedi was weak, leading Lucas to change it to Revenge of the Jedi. However, Lucas felt the title was wrong because Jedi don't seek revenge and reverted to Return of the Jedi, though some teaser posters with "Revenge" drawn by Drew Struzan had already been distributed.

Return of the Jedi premiered on May 25, 1983. Even before the film's release, Kasdan stated he wouldn't write another Star Wars film, correctly anticipating Lucas' prequel trilogy, but also said "never say never," as he hadn't expected to write Jedi in the first place.

In the years following Return of the Jedi, Lucas developed the Star Wars prequel trilogy, consisting of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, released in 1999, 2002, and 2005 respectively. During the prequels' development, Lucas repeatedly approached Kasdan, even during the first screening of The Phantom Menace, but Kasdan declined, believing Lucas should make the prequels as he wished after creative clashes during the original trilogy. As revealed in late 2022, Kasdan had little connection to the prequel films. Ironically, the prequels' dialogue was often criticized as "corny and cheesy," despite Lucas' intent for it to be tongue-in-cheek due to the prequels' melodramatic, soap opera-like nature.

In early 2012, Kathleen Kennedy contacted Kasdan to meet with her and Lucas, as Lucas planned to retire and sell Lucasfilm Ltd. to The Walt Disney Company, with the deal including more Star Wars movies. Despite initial doubts, Kasdan accepted when Kennedy and Lucas offered him a film centered on Han Solo. Kennedy and Lucas also wanted Kasdan to consult on the script for Star Wars: Episode VII, which Kasdan offered to do monthly before agreeing to consult on the seventh installment and write the Han Solo movie. On October 30, Lucasfilm announced its acquisition by Disney and a Star Wars sequel trilogy continuing the saga after Return of the Jedi. Reports on November 20 suggested Kasdan and Simon Kinberg would co-produce all three sequel films and share writing duties on the eighth and ninth films. Subsequent reports indicated Kasdan and Kinberg would write Star Wars projects, but not necessarily Episodes VIII and IX. However, StarWars.com confirmed on January 25, 2013 that Kasdan and J.J. Abrams would write Episode VII, with Abrams also directing. Kasdan was excited about Abrams' hiring, finding him funny and smart. On February 5, Disney confirmed Kasdan and Kinberg were working on new standalone films, not Episodes VIII and IX. Considering the original trilogy part of his "DNA," Kasdan didn't rewatch the first three films, as he and Abrams aimed to bring something new to the saga with Abrams as director, similar to how Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand imposed their visions on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Michael Arndt was the initial screenwriter for Episode VII, so Kasdan was brought on board to consult on Arndt's work, to see if he could offer assistance. Kasdan also collaborated with Rian Johnson, the director of Episode VIII, in a week-long story brainstorming session. Throughout 2013, Kasdan participated in numerous meetings with Arndt and the planning team, including Kennedy and Kiri Hart of the Lucasfilm Story Group. He met up again with Arndt and the filmmakers at a Santa Monica hotel to develop the story for Episode VII; however, they struggled for months, and with production looming, Arndt departed, passing the screenwriting baton to Kasdan and Abrams. While writing, Kasdan observed that the audience was more drawn to Han Solo than Luke, likening Solo to actors such as William Holden, Jimmy Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart because of his reluctant heroism and altruism. Kasdan always believed Han captivated audiences with his unpredictability and willingness to take risks. He found the opportunity to revisit an older but not necessarily wiser Han Solo irresistible. Acknowledging the in-universe passage of three decades since the last time they saw the iconic smuggler, Kasdan suggested that Han should repeat his mistakes; while older, his fundamental personality remained, but he had also been shaped by experiences, regrets, and disappointments, which Kasdan recognized as core to the character. Kasdan enjoyed writing the original trilogy trio thirty years after their previous appearance, as he had aged just like Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill. The film ultimately killed off Han Solo, fulfilling a desire Kasdan and Ford had held since Return of the Jedi, although Kasdan suspected Ford might have reconsidered killing Solo in the intervening years. Abrams initially hesitated to kill Solo, but Kasdan convinced him, enthusiastically relieving Abrams, who felt Kasdan made him feel that the idea wasn't necessarily the worst one. Regarding Luke Skywalker's role, Arndt's initial script introduced him midway through the film; however, because Luke's appearance overshadowed the protagonist, Kasdan and Abrams eventually agreed with Arndt before his departure that Luke should be removed from the main narrative and become the film's MacGuffin. Similarly, R2-D2 and C-3PO were initially intended to appear together, as in previous films, but Kasdan wisely suggested Arndt sideline Artoo and separate him from Threepio, allowing the former to have his own "awakening" at the end. Artoo could also serve as a plot device, similar to Luke, as part of the missing framework to locate the legendary Jedi, with Kasdan, Arndt, and Abrams theorizing that he might have downloaded crucial information when he connected to the Death Star in the original film. Kasdan and Abrams intentionally referenced what came before, crafting a new story that touched on familiar themes and ideas. While they didn't immediately incorporate ideas like Palpatine's return and his connection to the protagonist, they acknowledged these could be revisited later.

Besides Han Solo and the original trilogy characters, Kasdan and Abrams also needed to create new characters to lead the sequel trilogy. The entire movie was structured around introducing characters, both new and old. From the beginning, Kasdan knew Abrams was excited about having a woman at the center of the trilogy's story, which led to the creation of Rey. The primary antagonist, Kylo Ren, was a unique and novel character for Kasdan, describing him as highly emotional and struggling to manage those emotions, and he was ultimately impressed with Adam Driver's portrayal. Kasdan also conceived the idea of Finn being a deserting stormtrooper, believing it would be compelling to have a protagonist who was a member of the well-known group of "faceless, indistinguishable automatons." Kasdan first had the idea before Arndt left the production, as Arndt remembered Kasdan exclaiming such backstory as they struggled to find an original background for their male lead.

Kasdan and Abrams wrote the script for Episode VII, titled The Force Awakens, under significant time constraints, but Kasdan found the writing process to be the most enjoyable of his career. In addition to Santa Monica, Kasdan and Abrams discussed the story in locations such as New York City, Paris, and London, with Abrams recording these discussions on his iPhone. They even worked energetically through Christmas 2013. Their initial draft was completed in six weeks. The changes made by Kasdan and Abrams to Arndt's original script temporarily delayed the casting process for The Force Awakens, but it officially commenced in January 2014, when Kasdan and Abrams submitted their first draft, which relieved the production crew, who now had extensive preparations to undertake in England. From January until the start of production, Kasdan and Abrams continued to refine parts of the script, even during filming.

The Force Awakens premiered on December 18, 2015. Kasdan's return to the franchise for the film was particularly praised by The Hollywood Reporter's reviewer Todd McCarthy, who felt that Awakens let feel Kasdan's hand into the story, which McCarthy compared to Raiders of the Lost Ark in terms of its exuberance and incident. With his work finished in The Force Awakens, Kasdan and Abrams left the trilogy in the hands of Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow; Kasdan had faith that Johnson, as a friend of his, would make an unexpected and weirder sequel. However, Trevorrow was ultimately replaced with Abrams, so Kasdan later met with him and his creative team alongside Lucas and Johnson to develop ideas for the script of Episode IX, which was titled The Rise of Skywalker.

After completing The Force Awakens, Kasdan shifted his focus back to the Han Solo-centric film that Lucasfilm had originally commissioned him to write. As part of the Star Wars Anthology line, a series of stand-alone films exploring the origin stories of various Star Wars characters, the film was intended to reveal Han's backstory. Despite initial reluctance, Kasdan decided to proceed because Solo was, without question, his favorite character. While talking with Michael Arndt and Simon Kinberg, Kasdan explained to them his own idea of how Han got his last name, assuring that he had no family to a person who ended up giving him the surname "Solo." Kasdan pitched his idea by telling Disney CEO Bob Iger about this scene, which impressed Iger and led him to greenlight the movie. Kasdan wrote the script between the story meetings for The Force Awakens, but stopped working on it once he was asked by Kathleen Kennedy to help Abrams with Episode VII's script. He was left with almost no time to write the Han movie given his and Abrams' constant rewrites during Episode VII's production. As he worked in The Force Awakens As he worked in The Force Awakens, Kasdan left his son Jon to write the Han Solo film until he returned. Once his screenwriting duties for The Force Awakens finished, Kasdan was unsure if he wanted to still write the film, but Lucasfilm insisted their interest to still make it, which led Kasdan to ask them if they could hire Jon too to work with him because of his enthusiasm and creativity. Kasdan credited his son for reawakening his interest in the project, reminding him everything why had gotten him excited when he started working on the script, his love for the Han Solo character and that they could make a different Star Wars movie, touching many of the film genres they liked like film noir or Westerns. Since he was a kid, along with his brother Jake, Jon had tried to pressure his father into returning to the franchise. Kasdan even brought Jon with him to visit the set of The Force Awakens, even allowing Jon to be involved in some pivotal scenes like Han's death. Though Jon had followed his father's steps by becoming a filmmaker, father and son had never written a movie together. Lucasfilm approved Kasdan's idea and negotiated with Jon to make the film. Thus, father and son started working on the script in 2015. Like his father, Jon was also a fan of the Han Solo character. One of the aspects the Kasdans appreciated mostly from Solo was his recklessness in his relationships and life, inspiring them to write how Solo got to form that attitude toward life. To direct the film, Kasdan insisted in hiring the filmmaker duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, feeling they were the right directors to fill Han's mysterious backstory. On July 7, 2015, Lord and Miller were confirmed to direct the film, with the Kasdans expressing delight on working with the duo to bring a fresh, new dimension to the franchise.

The Kasdans collaborated on the script for nine months. Kasdan found the tone of the script, that of a crime Western, different in comparison to the main Star Wars films, where there were always the Rebels vs. Empire dynamic. They also added more explicit romance in the film compared to Han's brief flirting in the original trilogy. Kasdan didn't see the film as an origin story like Jon brilliantly put it up, but as a rite of passage, focused on human concerns instead of the Force, the Jedi and religion; how Han was formed and why did he end up doing the things he later did during the saga. Kasdan also saw the film as a love story about Han and Chewbacca, whom Kasdan saw as a great and fun foil to Han, because their friendship is the best one from the saga, which Jon compared to one with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, which they found challenging to write. For the story, the Kasdans took inspiration from some Western and crime movies like Heat, Unforgiven, Gangster No. 1 and various movies of the Coen brothers like The Big Lebowski as well from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island; the latter being also an adventure story of a young boy who meets characters of dubious intent, which the Kasdans read again before diving into the script. Before Jon or anyone else joined the project, Kasdan had conceived the notion of a Charles Dickens-esque childhood for Han as well as the character of Qi'ra, Han's romantic interest whom Kasdan named "Kura" at first. It was also decided from the beginning of the script's development that Qi'ra would end up betraying and leaving Han, as she was intended to be more complicated and ambitious than Han himself at that point in their lives. An aspect from the script present in every draft was the Conveyex transport's job, though the cargo was originally intended to be an extrmeely-dangerous criminal instead of coaxium. To invoke the sense of a space Western, the Kasdans chose to create Vandor-1 to evoke the beautiful landscape from the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where the Kasdans spend many Christmas together. Another sequence stuck from the very first draft was that of the Akkadese Maelstrom, which the Kasdans discussed endlessly with the crew because they wanted it as a means to make the Kessel Run visually exciting, wanting to give a Jules Verne flavor to the scene.

Among some of the things Lord and Miller added to the script were the inclusion of the speeder chase at the beginning. Kasdan was instead more passionate about having a foot-chase to evoke the Dickesian element and an scene in which Han pulls out an eel from his pants as a nod to River Phoenix, who previously worked with Kasdan in his film I Love You to Death, though the scene was ultimately cut from the finished film. When it was decided to also cut the scene where Han is expelled for disobeying direct orders at the Imperial Academy, the Kasdans fought hard to keep the scene in the film, as they saw it crucial to show Han as a pilot, but it was ultimately deemed to be a hinderance to the story's flow, which consistently felt to start upon Chewbacca's arrival. The Kasdans also intended to include a spooky Ridley Scott-type planet full of Lovecraftian monsters, where the protagonists would be forced to pit stop, but Lord and Miller correctly determined that the pit-stop would interrupt the Kessel Run's momentum. The film's characters represented facets of Han's formation and were inspired by one of the most common themes in Star Wars, which consists that anyone can find a new family if his original one may be gone, changing each other by their contact or meeting as strangers at first, like is the case of the first meetings of Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian with Han, or even forgetting about old acquaintances, like it happens with Han's relationship with Qi'ra, which changes over the movie's course. An early inspiration Kasdan had for the character if Qi'ra was that of Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat from the seminal film noir film Out of the Past. As a movie styled with film noir, its absolute center had to be a femme fatale with a dark duality about whether to give her love to the people she cares or let her selfishness get her best, a role which the Kasdans found perfect for Qi'ra, approving Emilia Clarke's casting as her, whom Kasdan thought to be one of the best Star Wars women, being a fan of Clarke's work in Game of Thrones. The Kasdans based Tobias Beckett on Long John Silver, the main antagonist of Treasure Island, whose mentor/apprentice relationship with Jim Hawkins they wanted to recreate between Beckett and Solo. The Kasdans approved Woody Harrelson's casting as Beckett, feeling that he could embody the duality of appearing as a figure who can be seen as a teacher, a father figure, a rascal, an unreliable narrator or an unrealiable partner. The character of L3-37 was conceived in conversations between the Kasdans, Lord and Miller, coming from the latter's astute observation that it was funny how Wuher kicked out C-3PO in the first Star Wars film, given that droids seems to be the least rambunctious folks in the galaxy. With L3, the Kasdans saw an opportunity to add a new female character with a voice that was different from the others the audience had already seen. While Jon wrote Lando Calrissian as pansexual and romantically interested in L3-37, Kasdan was more cryptic about the intention of L3's jokes focusing on Lando's flirty attitude toward Han, musing that it may mean something or not, dismissing the dialogue as part of L3's personality. Early drafts by the Kasdans had Enfys Nest and her marauders attack Beckett's gang during the Vandor heist with Bantha-II cargo skiffs, but Lord and Miller preferred to use swoop bikes, so Jon browsed for inspirations at Wookieepedia until he found out the Cloud-Riders swoop-biking gang from the classic Marvel Comics' Star Wars series from the 1970s. Jon told his father about his findings and they decided to include the Cloud-Riders. An idea Lawrence was insisted by his son to include was bringing Warwick Davis back as his The Phantom Menace character Weazel as part of the Cloud-Riders. Due to not seeing the prequels, Lawrence had no idea of who Weazel was, but trusted his son to write the character in the film. Respect to some sequences, one that survived several drafts fairly deep into production before being dropped involved Beckett's gang leaving Mimban without Solo and Chewbacca, leading the duo to steal an Imperial garbage ship to escape, dumping the garbage onto several stormtroopers in the process. To figure out how to write the Kessel Heist to have the kind of feeling and momentum of coordinated effort, the Kasdans kept revisiting the Mission: Impossible film series, though Han's personality constrasts that of Ethan Hunt.

Once the script was finished, casting for the young Han Solo began, and Alden Ehrenreich was ultimately cast in the lead role. With Ehrenreich's casting, certain parts of the script were revised so they could be tailored to Ehrenreich's voice. Kathleen Kennedy also sent Harrison Ford a copy of the Kasdans' script for his approval. Filming began in 2017, but as filming went ahead, Lucasfilm felt that Lord and Miller were moving the movie away from the vision crafted by the Kasdans' script and significantly changing the story by encouraging an improvisational style on set. To appease Kasdan, who was against improvisation, Lord and Miller shot alternate takes with the actors reciting the dialogue "word by word" and additional ones with improvised dialogue. As the measures didn't get the production on track, Kennedy requested Kasdan to come to London, but Lord and Miller felt that Kasdan had become something like a "shadow director." Though Lucasfilm believed they could fix all these issues with the reshoots, Lord and Miller were reportedly reluctant to alter their approach, which led Kennedy to remove them from the project. Kasdan felt that given their successes in comedies like 21 Jump Street and The LEGO Movie, Lord and Miller wanted to make fun of the film's tone and push it into the "Guardians of the Galaxy territory," which he refused, as he felt that though one can have fun with the tone, they should not make fun of the tone, having the sense that in nowadays' meta culture there is a tendency to make fun of films even before they are made. Having come up with the premise years ago, Kasdan felt some kind of ownership of the film, which led him to raise his voice to mantain and hear the franchise's tone. Said and done, it was announced on June 20, 2017 by Lucasfilm that a new director for the film would soon be announced as Lord and Miller were departing from the project due to creative differences. Once Lord and Miller left the project, Kennedy searched for a new director immediately, trying to have Kasdan assume the directorial duties of the film. However, Kasdan was prevented from doing so by the rules of the Directors Guild of America, which established that someone already involved in a production which has lost a director can't serve as a replacement, leading Kennedy to consider Ron Howard and Joe Johnston as other potential options. Howard ultimately agreed to replace Lord and Miller and joined the project two days later. Kasdan approved Howard's hiring, as he invited him and Jon to talk and expressed his love towards their script. Howard then directed some reshoots, during which Howard brought back the subject of including the Lovecraftian monsters the Kasdans had initially written, leading to the creation of the Summa-verminoth. Filming finished on October 17 and its title was officially announced to be Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Solo: A Star Wars Story was released on May 25, 2018. The Kasdans were praised by Forbes incidentally for making the film feel like a random adventure rather than the usual "Empire versus Rebellion" struggle, while The Guardian credited them for "channeling the spirits" of the original trilogy into the film. However, Solo ended up underperforming, something which Kasdan felt unusual. Kasdan later stated that he felt that Lucasfilm "blew it" in regards to Solo. Furthermore, following the film's flop, the studio repeatedly tried to woo him back, even sending a messenger with a new Star Wars script, but Kasdan was not interested and didn't answer it, as he just wanted to get back to directing, which has always been his true passion.

• Lawrence Kasdan on Wikipedia
• Lawrence Kasdan at the Internet Movie Database