Ron Howard will clearly need time to get up to speed, but the sooner he gets started the faster he’ll be able to get to work.
The statement also confirms that the release date remains unchanged, which means currently Howard has less than a year to finish a movie that hasn’t finished filming.
Lucasfilm has officially confirmed the news via the official Star Wars website.
A deal being signed quickly to replace Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who earlier this week left the Han Solo movie due to “creative differences” with Lucasfilm, will likely go a long way to minimizing the damage to the schedule, that the exit would have caused.