Most film executives would be thrilled if their movie brought in nearly $400 million at the box office unless, say, they needed to pull in nearly $500 million to break even. Then they’re not so thrilled.

That was the reality for 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which didn’t do as well as pretty much every other official entity with the name Star Wars attached to it does. In fact, the movie’s disappointing box office return caused Lucasfilm to chill on the spin-offs until a better plan is put into place.After Solo’s subpar showing, some theories were put forward to attempt to explain the underwhelming mainstream support. While Mark Hamill considered whether or not audiences may have “Star Wars fatigue,” the movie’s director (Ron Howard) thinks that the poor showing could be explained, at least in part, by a seemingly endless stream of relentless internet trolls who may have had an influence on an unsuspecting public.

Howard aired these thoughts on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, amidst a few other musings on why things just didn’t work out.

“I feel very good about the way it turned out. I love the way it played to audiences, which I witnessed and was a part of,” Howard said at first. “So all of that I’m able to feel good about. Sure, I wish it would’ve done [better] and lived up to the box office and so forth, so that’s disappointing. Why? Maybe it’s the release. Maybe it’s the idea that it’s sort of too nostalgic, going back and revisiting an origin story for a beloved character may not be what the fans were looking for.”

Click Here or below for the full story at Complex.com