It looks like Phil Lord and Chris Miller aren’t the only casualties of the director shake-up on Lucasfilm’s Han Solo Star Wars spinoff, with Michael K. Williams revealing to Deadline that he’s been cut from the Anthology movie due to scheduling issues preventing him from taking part in the Ron Howard-directed reshoots.
“I felt great about what I created with the directors that I worked with,” said Williams, who is currently shooting The Red Sea Diving Resort in South Africa. “It is what it is. We created a kick-ass character, in my opinion. I’m proud of it. 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.”
Williams also went on to state that he hopes to get another chance to venture to the galaxy far, far away in the future, adding that: “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.”
SEE ALSO: Rumour: Lupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata to appear in Han Solo Star Wars spinoff
Han Solo stars Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Beckett (Solo’s mentor), Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca and Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Thandie Newton (Westworld), Ian Kenny (Sing Street), and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) in as-yet-unrevealed roles. It is set for release on May 25th 2018.