ABC/Image Group LA(LOS ANGELES) — Imagine getting a role in a Star Wars film and a Ron Howard film….and then losing it. That’s just what happened to The Wire‘s Michael K. Williams.
Williams was set to appear in an unrevealed role in the upcoming Han Solo stand-alone prequel. But back in June the movie’s original directorial duo, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, left the production over creative differences with producers, and Howard was brought in to finish the picture.
Deadline reports that Howard’s arrival meant reshooting scenes that had previously been shot, but Williams, was committed to a movie with Ben Kingsley and Chris Evans shooting in South Africa. So instead, Williams’ part is going to be left on the cutting room floor.
“It’s scheduling,” Williams tells Deadline. “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 said his role was as a half-human, half-animal character. “We created a kick-a** character, in my opinion,” he said. “I’m proud of it.”
Maybe we’ll get to see some of those scenes when the DVD comes out.
The Han Solo movie, which stars Alden Ehrenreich as a younger version of the scoundrel famously played by Harrison Ford in the Star Wars movies, is still slated for a May 25, 2018 release.
Atlanta star Donald Glover will play the young Lando Calrissian, and Woody Harrelson has been cast as unlikely mentor for the pilot, smuggler and scruffy-looking Nerf herder to-be. Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke also is in the cast.
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