My son loved the Clone Wars cartoons. I realized how toxic “Solo” was when I asked him if he want to see it, and he said no.
That is after having seen “The Force Awakens”, loving it, seeing “The Last Jedi” and being lukewarm about it, and being shown the original trilogy and loving that.
So a kid who liked or was OK with the movies didn’t want to see “Solo” though that’s the movie that would be most aimed at him.
I wonder to what degree killing “Solo” and then having a movie about him was the mistake, whether having it in the reverse order would have been a solution.
I think there are several things that are going on:
1) The Last Jedi was such a horrible movie that it effectively killed the francise. The people who rushed out to see it are in a “wait-and-see” mood for Solo, and in a “skip it” for Episode IX.
2) I don’t think Solo dieing necessarily means people won’t be interested in seeing him again — but Harrison Ford was so iconic that they really needed to (and didn’t) find a really good actor to be the Young Solo.
3) Go back and rewatch the first Star Was trilogy to study Solo’s character. He is contemptuous of Leia “Your Worshipfulness” [Mysogny! Sexism!]. He is confident and capable [Toxic masculinity!]. He kisses her without getting signed¬orized written permission [#metoo!]. In short, he is a character that Hollywood will not create today, meaning that no matter how objectively good Solo is as an independent movie, it is not going to show the character Han Solo.