To be totally honest, we’re still not thrilled about how Disney/Marvel/Star Wars continues to treat directors as disposable tools instead of valuable artistic collaborators. It’s just a gross and corporate way to approach art,…
To be totally honest, we’re still not thrilled about how Disney/Marvel/Star Wars continues to treat directors as disposable tools instead of valuable artistic collaborators. It’s just a gross and corporate way to approach art, treating it like endless product for profit. So that’s why we’re finding it pretty hard to be excited about the Han Solo origin movie (ugh!) that had its original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller canned after shooting much of the film (ugh!!).
However, new Solo director Ron Howard is very talented in his own right. Plus he starred in famous pre-Star Wars George Lucas film American Graffiti. It’s still likely Solo: A Star Wars Story will be a lemon when it releases later this month, but now we’ve seen the lemonade that’s possible by bringing Ron Howard into the franchise. Listen to him reprise his role as “the narrator” in this hilarious Star Wars / Arrested Development mash-up.
From the iconic intro onwards, this spoof reveals the funny and fascinating parallels between the Bluth and Skywalker families. There are bad dads and dutiful sons and weird incest overtones we’re shocked to see an official StarWars.com video officially recognize. Both series even involve hands being chopped off, and both were at some point owned by Fox.
The sketch also masterfully parodies Arrested Development’s uniquely comedic editing. While roughly following the plot of A New Hope, the narrator frequently flashes us back to other scenes or movies for some kind of ironic contrast. Again, it’s kind of wild to see an official Star Wars video acknowledge the awkwardness between older Obi-Wan lovingly discussing his relationship with Anakin and what the prequels showed us of how toxic that relationship actually was.
Naturally this is really just one big ad for Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Ron even gets a plug in. But this May 4th is significant for both Star Wars and Arrested Development fans. As “May the Fourth,” it’s Star Wars Day with the now-expected annual deals and celebrations.
But May 4th is also “Cinco De Cuatro,” a running joke from Arrested Development season 4. And on this Cinco De Cuatro Netflix will release a remixed version of the controversial, labyrinthine revival to build hype for season 5 coming this year. Just give Maeby Fünke Force powers and everything will come full circle. Or follow-up on that Tobias cameo in Avengers: Infinity War.
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