K.T Simpson
The “Star Wars” stand alone film based on Han Solo is currently undertaking reshoots with new director Ron Howard. Unfortunately for Michael Kenneth Williams, this means that his role has been canned, mostly due to the conflicting scheduling that arose from the reshoots.
Williams was originally cast in the Han Solo origin story by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directors that recently exited the project. After their exit in June, Howard replaced the duo and restarted production in July with the release date still set at May 25, 2018.
Speaking to Deadline, Williams commented on his role being cut from the film:
“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,” Williams told Deadline. “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 [his SundanceTV series] 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.”
Williams’ character details had been kept under wraps but he tells Deadline his character was a half-human, half-animal, stating “we created a kick-ass character, in my opinion. I’m proud of it.”
