We live in a world where it’s an average year to get five to seven superhero movies. Hell, in that average year, we get three movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe alone, and as such, it’s wasn’t the most ridiculous thing ever that a Star Wars film every year or every six months could actually be a solid idea. And why not? The franchise is beloved (except for by those who hold it most dear), and there could be a multitude of stories that could be told in its universe.

But, as we know, last year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story didn’t pan out for Disney. It made less than $400 million worldwide and given its budget of $275 million (perhaps even more with reshoots), it really was enough to at least put the future of the franchise into question. Director Ron Howard recently spoke on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he pointed to a few reasons. The first revolved around its Memorial Day release.

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The second reason was an admitted potential fault in the story being told.

“Maybe it’s the idea that it’s too nostalgic,” Howard told the podcast. “That going back and revisiting an origin story for a beloved character may not be what the fans were looking for. It seemed to me looking at the opening, big but not as big as the others, I think that was [only] the hardcore fans. [The drop-off] tells you how many people are tagalongs who need to wait to see what people think or if it’s essential, if it’s a zeitgeist movie or not. It didn’t hit the zeitgeist, for whatever reason.”

The third reason? Good ol’ fashioned trolls.

“[There wasn’t so much hate on] the Twitter feed,” Howard added, “but it was notable prior to the release of the movie in several of the algorithms, whether it was Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes. There was an inordinate push down on the ‘want to see’ and on the fan voting. Some friends from Silicon Valley explained to me how it works. Under that circumstance, I did not take it personally at all but I felt badly.”

I honestly can’t fault him for any of those reasons, as they are all potentially great contributing factors to its failure.

What other reasons do you think this movie failed? Yes, this is your cue to yell out Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the comments down below.

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SOURCE: Happy Sad Confused Podcast (via IndieWire)