‘Han Solo’ Actor Michael K Williams Cut From Film In Reshoots

If you’ve been really excited about seeing The Wire’s Michael K Williams in the upcoming Han Solo Star Wars film, I’ve got some bad news for you. Deadline is reporting that the actor’s role has landed soundly on the cutting room floor as Ron Howard works to get the movie into a form that will satisfy Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the Disney/ Lucasfilm team.

As it turned out, the reshoots that Howard wanted for the part ended up conflicting with Williams’ shooting schedule for his upcoming spy film, The Red Sea Diving Resort, which co-stars Ben Kingsley and Chris Evans.

In regards to the new development, the actor had this to say:

“I felt great about what I created with the directors that I worked with. It is what it is. When Ron Howard got hired to finish out the film, there were some reshoot issues that needed to be done in regards to my character, in order for it to match the new direction which the producers wanted Ron to carry the film in, and that would have required me on a plane a month ago to London, to Pinewood, to do reshoots. But I’m here, on location in Africa. It’s scheduling. I’m not going to be back on the market until the end of November after Hap and Leonard, and for them to wait that long for me, that would have pushed back the release date, which I believe is in May 2018. They wanted me now; I couldn’t go. So they had to clip-clip-clip.”

While we don’t know much about the film or the character Williams was set to play, we do know that he was going to be some sort of half-human, half animal creature. And, as to whether this means we’ll never see Williams in a Star Wars film, he’s still optimistic:

“I don’t think that me not being in the Star Wars family is final,” Williams said. “I left with a very good taste in my mouth about the whole family, and I hope that I left a good taste in their mouth. They’re a great group of people, the Lucas family.”

Source: Deadline