It's hard to fathom anybody not using Michael K. Williams when they've got him, but apparently Ron Howard's Han Solo spinoff couldn't find a way. Deadline reports Williams' character has been cut from the standalone movie. Eh, we never found out who he was playing, did we? Oh well.
Of course, this is all due to the film being reshaped by Howard after he took over from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Some pretty extensive reshoots are taking place and Williams says he just couldn't fit it into his busy schedule...
“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 [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.”
His character must not have been too significant if it could be dropped altogether. It's a logical move for Lucasfilm if they wanted to still hit the target May 25th 2018 release date, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.
