It looks like the Star Wars Han Solo spinoff has suffered another loss.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Michael Kenneth Williams (HBO’s The Night Of) will no longer be appearing in the upcoming spinoff.
The Emmy nominated actor was set to play a half-human, half-animal alien in the upcoming film but unfortunately, his character has now ended up on the cutting room floor due to the film’s reshoot schedule.
After current director Ron Howard took over directing duties from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, production on the film was momentarily halted until Howard officially took hold of the reins in July.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Williams explained that reshoots for his character were needed in order to fall in line with the new direction the Han Solo film is taking. Sadly, the new shooting schedule clashed with Williams’ prior commitments which include starring opposite Chris Evans in the upcoming spy thriller The Red Sea Diving Resort.
“It’s scheduling,” Williams told Deadline. “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…they wanted me now; I couldn’t go. So they had to clip-clip-clip.”
Though fans won’t get to see Williams in Han Solo, it sounds like the actor is remaining fairly optimistic about returning to the Star Wars universe.
“I don’t think that me not being in the Star Wars family is final,” continued Williams. “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.”
Though the Star Wars film crew is notorious for keeping plot points under wraps, we’re hoping they’ll give us more details on Williams’ role somewhere down the line now that he’s been cut. We’d be curious to know how big or small of a role he was set to play, and who we might have seen him interact with.
The Star Wars Han Solo spinoff is set to premiere in theaters on May 25, 2018.
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