Kathleen Kennedy opens up about 'incredibly difficult decision' of firing Lord and Miller

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has opened up about the axing of director duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story, saying they are "hilarious", but their "process" did not match the requirement of the studio.

Director Ron Howard had replaced Lord and Miller, who had left the project over creative differences.

"I think these guys are hilarious, but they come from a background of animation and sketch comedy. And when you are making these movies, you can do that and there's plenty of room for improvisation, we do that all the time, but it has to be inside of a highly structured process or you can't get the work done," Kennedy told Entertainment Weekly.

"And you can't move the armies of people to anticipate and have things ready. So, it literally came down to process. Just getting it done," she added.

The 64-year-old producer said that the decision to remove the helmer duo was an "incredibly difficult decision".

"I just say over and over again that, yes, it was an incredibly difficult decision that we had to make and obviously it was pretty late in the game, which shows we spent a lot of time trying not to have to make that decision. When all of this came together, all of us wanted nothing more than to have this be an incredible working experience. And when it was not working out as we had all hoped, it wasn't out of lack of talent," she added.

Alden Ehrenreich plays young Solo in the new film, a character immortalised on screen by veteran actor Harrison Ford.

Solo also features Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover and Thandie Newton.