UPDATE: Lucasfilm has now confirmed the news via StarWars.com with an official logline:
The story focuses on how young Han Solo became the smuggler, thief, and scoundrel whom Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first encountered in the cantina at Mos Eisley.
Lord and Miller also had this to add about the idea of working on this project:
This is the first film we’ve worked on that seems like a good idea to begin with. We promise to take risks, to give the audience a fresh experience, and we pledge ourselves to be faithful stewards of these characters who mean so much to us. This is a dream come true for us. And not the kind of dream where you’re late for work and all your clothes are made of pudding, but the kind of dream where you get to make a film with some of the greatest characters ever, in a film franchise you’ve loved since before you can remember having dreams at all.”
Can someone say, Everything is Awesome? We already knew a spinoff movie about Han Solo was inevitable, but The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the movie is in fact in development about the life of Solo as a young man (now I guess we can learn what the Kessel Run is and just how fast the Millennium Falcon really completed it).
But the real big news is that the directors of The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, will reportedly helm the project. THR’s reporter Borys Kit also revealed via Twitter that the film has been dated for May 25, 2018, and that Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, who wrote The Empire Strikes Back and the upcoming The Force Awakens, will be writing the script.
Neither Disney nor Lucasfilm has confirmed the announcement, but they suspect that Lord and Miller will likely now no longer be developing a Flash movie for DC, and that it may impact their schedule on a Jump Street spinoff. They will however remain involved with a Lego Movie sequel.
This Han Solo film however is reportedly not the project that Josh Trank recently departed from, long rumored to be the announced Boba Fett spinoff.
Lord and Miller are franchise gold right now and feel like they could tackle just about anything, but to give them control over the wise-crack Han and the deadpan roars of Chewbacca could be nothing short of awesome.
UPDATE: Chris Miller on Twitter has now “confirmed” the news via a red “Solo” cup. Get it?
Very excited. Celebrating by drinking fancy whiskey out of this cup: pic.twitter.com/RpJKzmW5Ns
— Chris Miller (@chrizmillr) July 7, 2015