X

Opie in space: Ron Howard-Star Wars jokes blast off on Twitter

It's Happy Days for Twitter jokesters. The director we've known since Mayberry has taken over the Han Solo movie.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
See full bio
Gael Cooper

Many of us have grown up with Ron Howard, from his Opie days on "The Andy Griffith Show" through "Happy Days," "Arrested Development," his directing career and more. Yes, he's an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he's also Opie, and Richie, and Steve from "American Graffiti," and that guy from that one "Love, American Style" episode. Many directors are just names to most of us, but Howard is a face, a voice and a life.

So when it was announced Thursday that he'd be directing the Han Solo solo film, after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's departure, it kinda felt like Lucasfilm had handed the directing reins over to everyone's little brother. 

Naturally, Happy Days came to social media snarksters, right up until the joke jumped the shark.

There were "Arrested Development" jokes...

"Happy Days" jokes...

And "Andy Griffith Show" jokes.

Richie, er, Opie, er, Howard is reportedly getting right down to work. The Hollywood Reporter says he "is considered to be a safe choice to complete the task, someone who will ably finish the movie while being a calming presence on set."

The Han Solo movie stars Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton and Emilia Clarke, and is scheduled for release in May 2018.

Star Wars at 40: Celebrate the many ways the Force-filled sci-fi saga has impacted our lives.

Logging Out: A look at death in the digital age.