THE WIRE's Michael K. Williams Has Been Cut From The HAN SOLO Movie
The first casting casualty from Lucasfilm's Han Solo movie has occurred since Ron Howard took over as the director on the film. It's with a heavy heart that I have to report that Michael K. Willaims has been cut out of the film. I was actually really excited about him being in the movie. You might recognize him from shows such as The Wire and Boardwalk Empire. The guy is crazy talented.
We don't know who he would have played in the film, but the reason he was cut is because he couldn't come into to reshoot certain scenes that he needed to be involved with. The actor revealed the news during an interview with Deadline in which he explained:
"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."
That's a shame that his schedule wouldn't allow him to come back for the reshoots. He went on to say that even though things went down this way, he was left with a good taste in his mouth:
"I don’t think that me not being in the Star Wars family is final. 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."
Maybe he thinks his character will pop up somewhere else down the line. He seems to think that his time with them isn't over, though... unless Lucasfilm decides to recast the role! But I haven't seen any talk of that.
The untitled Han Solo movie is scheduled for release May 25, 2018