'Solo' writer on the biggest issue he 'was eager to retcon' in a sequel to the 'Star Wars' film

It's been almost half a decade since the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story and while Alden Ehrenreich had signed on to play the galaxy's favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder for a total of three movies, his time aboard the Millennium Falcon was tragically cut short by abysmal box office returns. This embarrassing financial disaster prompted Lucasfilm to scrap its ongoing plans for more spinoff projects, including an adventure centered around the legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett, and an origin story for that wretched hive of scum and villainy: the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Despite there being plenty of fan support for a second entry in the Solo franchise that wasn't meant to be, the company behind the Star Wars universe has no current plans to allow the father-son duo of Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan (the latter is a veteran of the original trilogy) to write a smuggling sequel. That's not just a shame for viewers, but for the Kasdans as well — particularly Jonathan, who has been itching to rectify a major issue he has with the 2018 original helmed by Ron Howard.

"If Dryden Vos [Paul Bettany] is so concerned about exposing his gang in the [Kessel] heist, why does he send his most trusted aid [Qi’ra; played by Game of Thrones alum, Emilia Clarke] to be the most visible member of the team that steals the coaxium?" he remarked during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "It seems to me that he’s going to have to kill her almost immediately just to separate himself from that job. So it always drove me crazy, and it was a problem that I was eager to retcon in a sequel."

Solo, of course, is quite famous — or perhaps infamous, we should say — among fans for its cliffhanger ending, which set up the return of Darth Maul (now the feared leader of the crime syndicate known as Crimson Dawn) and hinted at a calamitous end for Han and Qi'ra's relationship. With galactic content scoring big in the world of television via The Mandalorian and Andor, it's alway possible for the story to continue episodically, although Kasdan is reluctant to broach the topic with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.

"Despite all my resistance, she instantly sees right through me, and she can see my desire to tell more stories there," he admitted to THR. "But in recent months, I have been intrigued by the wonderful Werewolf by Night as a potential form of storytelling on Disney+. So I would love to see Lucasfilm embrace a short-form novella version for telling some of their stories. That certainly seems like a place where future stories about those characters could live."

His father, on the other hand, doesn't have much interest in the small screen. "I do talk to Jon and Ron a lot about what went right and what went wrong with the Solo experience. I would be more interested in doing another movie, not a TV series," Lawrence said (via Comic Book Resources).

Jonathan later re-teamed with Lucasfilm for the Willow TV series on Disney+, for which he serves as co-showrunner and executive producer alongside Wendy Mericle. Solo: A Star Wars Story is now streaming on Disney+ along the first two episodes of Willow.

Looking for more high-concept sci-fi? Check out SYFY's Battlestar Galactica, streaming now on Peacock.