Ron Howard

It’s a big deal when you pass a follower milestone on social media. You feel like, finally, you’re being HEARD, you’re being SEEN, and, naturally, it warrants some kind of celebratory post to commemorate the day. But not all of us can celebrate with Chewbacca, the Chewbacca, by our side. Fortunately for Emilia Clarke, she can.

Now the story of a saga a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away, and the one Jedi that had no choice but to keep it all together.

Just last night we got our first look at Donald Glover all dressed up as a young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo movie. Ron Howard shared a little selfie with a shot of Glover on the monitor behind him, and this morning the director revealed another little sneak peak: a trip to Hyperspace.

Production has gotten up and running on Ron Howard’s much-talked-about Han Solo spinoff film, a fact we know because he personally told the whole Internet last night. Unstoppable Instagram power user Howard posted the public’s first peek into his heavily-guarded Han Solo set to the photo-sharing platform, and while it doesn’t reveal all that much, we do get a glimpse of one likely fan-favorite character. He’s been more elusive in recent months, but Donald Glover has been spotted, and while our new impression of Lando Calrissian may be small and seen through a display monitor, he’s still unmistakably fly.

Ron Howard finally learned how to use his phone camera! The director has been sharing a bunch of obscure (and relatively boring) photos from the set of the Han Solo movie since taking over as director. He took a photo of a case of water bottles (thrilling!), a street sign outside Pinewood Studios, and a coffee mug, convincing me that they all must have been accidents. He was clearly trying to take a selfie with Alden Ehrenreich’s titular smuggler but couldn’t figure out how to reverse the camera. Finally, today, we got a revealing photo.

Woody Harrelson is a pretty chill dude, so when he was recently asked about Ron Howard replacing Phil Lord and Chris Miller on the Han Solo spinoff, his response wasn’t particularly surprising: “I wouldn’t worry.” Of course he wouldn’t worry; he’s Woody Harrelson, a man who wears flip flops to film premieres and calls fellow mellow dude Matthew McConaughey his BFF.

We haven’t seen too much of the Han Solo movie, except for all that hot goss about why Phil Lord and Chris Miller left the project, but the set photos have been trickling in. Yesterday, a couple pictures surfaced from the set of our young Han (Alden Ehrenreich), Chewbacca, and Woody Harrelson’s mysterious character together and in costume on set.

Ron Howard is a very capable director who knows how to position a camera and capture a powerful image. But I also have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Ron Howard isn’t great at social media or taking casual phone pics. He seems like the type of dad who accidentally snaps a selfie when attempting to take a shot of a sunset, or butt-Facetimes his family. Just look at his latest Twitter photo.

If you’ve made use of the internet in the past week, then you may very well be aware of a recent personnel change-up on the set of the gestating Han Solo spinoff film. Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are out, Ron Howard’s in, but as with most showbiz behind-the-scenes drama, the details have been kept under wraps. That is, until The Hollywood Reporter ran an illuminating new item this morning, getting the dish on what really drove the two filmmakers away from this project. The catch-all code word of “creative differences” does not even come close to doing justice to the antipathy between the Lord-Miller brain trust and Lucasfilm.

The news that Ron Howard would take the directorial reins on Han Solo from Chris Miller and Phil Lord was met with a mixed reception by the ardent Star Wars fanbase. Some remembered Howard as the director behind Apollo 13, a movie partially set in outer space (the same location as much of Han Solo, presumably!), and figured he’d be right for the job. Others had fresher recollections of Ron Howard’s Inferno, a.k.a. Bad Tom Hanks Hairpiece 3, and expressed some misgivings. But today, one ardent supporter of Howard‘s has made a statement from the shadows on why he’s a perfect fit for the franchise, though he may have some rubbery, alien skin in the game.