The Han Solo movie now flying solo without directors

In a shocking turn of events, Lucasfilm has parted ways with the directors of its still-untitled Han Solo spinoff movie -- while it's still being filmed at Pinewood Studios in London.

"It’s become clear that we had different creative visions on this film, and we’ve decided to part ways," Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement. "A new director will be announced soon."

The directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, put out their own similar statement: "We normally aren’t fans of the phrase ‘creative differences’ but for once this cliché is true," it said. "Unfortunately, our vision and process weren’t aligned with our partners."

To say this is irregular and unexpected would be a very Han Solo-like understatement. The movie is roughly three weeks from the end of filming. To change directors at this point is enormously disruptive and expensive, even for Disney's deep pockets -- not to mention the worst PR possible for the Star Wars franchise.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller were the highly bankable directors of The Lego Movie, and they seemed like a perfect fit for Lucasfilm's culture of secrecy plus quiet, professional japery.

They'd been filming fun-filled promotional videos from the set already, including one for a "Force for Change" charity contest that introduced a new creature and revealed that Warwick Davis, also known as Wicket the Ewok, would be appearing in the film.

In other words, whatever "creative differences" they had with Lucasfilm must have been the size of Starkiller base.

It's not like Lucasfilm hasn't parted ways with its creatives-for-hire before. The script development of The Force Awakens was stopped in its tracks in 2013 when writer Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3) left the movie. And the company waved goodbye to Josh Trank in the wake of reports of the director's bad behavior on the set of Fantastic Four.

Trank was to direct the second spin-off movie -- the one that eventually became the Han Solo project.

But both of those situations arose long before filming began. And at least in the case of Arndt, Lucasfilm had replacement writers ready to roll: in the same breath as the company announced his departure, it also revealed that Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) would step in, co-writing Force Awakens with director J.J. Abrams.

For Lord and Miller to depart without a named replacement is a lapse for a company that knows exactly how this looks, and it likely means this situation must have arisen very quickly.

If there was any director in the Lucasfilm stable rumored to be on the chopping block, it was Colin Trevorrow, director of Star Wars Episode IX (the same movie Trank was supposed to helm). Trevorrow's movie The Book of Henry met extremely disappointing reviews last week, and many fans on social media expressed concern that his movies and statements showed a pattern of sexism.

Now the short-term focus switches to the question of who will replace Lord and Miller. Depending on how you look at it, it's either the coolest opportunity in Hollywood -- or, given the controlling hand of Lucasfilm, the kind of hassle that no director above a certain level needs. Reports that Rogue One director Gareth Edwards essentially had the movie taken away from him during reshoots have not gone unnoticed.

Even without a director for the project, Lucasfilm is confident the Han Solo movie will cruise into theaters on schedule on May 25, 2018.