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You might recall Popverse recently reporting on Damon Lindelof sharing his experience of being fired from a Star Wars movie and figure, 'Wow, it’s wild that Lucasfilm would let go of one of such a massive name in entertainment.' Well it won’t take more than a quick Google to find out that Lindelof isn’t alone - Spider-Verse directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller also got the axe (lightsaber?) from the Franchise Far, Far Away. But in a recent interview, the pair of directors revealed a side of their firing that was more positive than what Lindelof has said publicly of his own.

In that, through the experience, they learned how to make Project Hail Mary.

The story comes from the latest issue of Empire Magazine, in which the directing duo wound the clocks back to 2017. After already having begun principle photography, Lord & Miller were let go by Lucasfilm due to creative differences, but as Chris Miller tells it, those few weeks were still worth a great deal.

"It was a real learning experience," the director said, "I would say, above everything else. We ended up working with a lot of the same crew members on this film [referring to 2026 smash hit Project Hail Mary] that we worked with on that film, and we learned a lot about what it takes to make a big, giant studio movie with a bunch of visual effects and a bunch of puppets and creatures and sets where everything has to be manufactured and designed."

"You can’t just be like, 'Oh, we’re in the coffee shop and here’s a pencil,'" Miller continued, "What is a pencil in the Star Wars universe? There aren’t pencils, so what is that? It makes you think about every little detail."

For his part, Phil Lord points to how the experience related to another area of success for the duo.

"It’s similar to working on an animated filmdom," he said, "Where you have to make everything, which means that everything is a choice, which means that every meeting is a story meeting. Yes, there were plenty of scars at the end of that picture, but most of the memories are really positive."

Over here at Popverse, we’re thrilled to know that the experience didn’t get Lord & Miller down. Although I gotta say, I can’t help but wonder if the Solo filmmakers aren’t looking at Project Hail Mary’s box office numbers and wondering what could have been. 

Solo: A Star Wars Story is streaming on Disney+. Project Hail Mary is in theaters now.

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