With director Ron Howard coming on board the Han Solo movie and reshoots happening, it’s learned Michael Kenneth Williams has been cut from the film.
Deadline reports Michael Kenneth Williams’ role has been cut as a result of a scheduling conflict.
Michael Kenneth Williams said the new Han Solo production schedule conflicted with his commitment to his latest movie, The Red Sea Diving Resort, which is now shooting in South Africa with Ben Kingsley and Chris Evans.
“I felt great about what I created with the directors that I worked with,” Williams said, who was cast in the Han Solo origin story by original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who exited in June. “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,” 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 confirmed he played a half-human, half-animal in the film and that “we created a kick-ass character, in my opinion. I’m proud of it.”
The untitled Han Solo film is slated for a May 25, 2018 release directed by Ron Howard starring Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson as Becket, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, with Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michael Kenneth Williams in unknown roles.
