The Han Solo spinoff movie has had no shortage of troubles during production, seemingly from the very beginning. People started to wonder why there had been almost nothing from the set well into filming—no news, very few pictures, not even a teaser or sizzle reel. Then the bottom fell out of the Star Wars film in June when directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller left the project due to "creative differences"...with three weeks left to go in filming. On the heels of that came the reports that the split wasn't nearly as amicable as both sides professed. Ron Howard quickly stepped in to direct, but with him came the news that extensive reshoots were being called for.

And now the news comes that the talented Michael K Williams has been cut from the movie entirely by Howard due to scheduling conflicts with the reshoots.

In an interview with Deadline Hollywood, Williams explained that when Howard was signed on, he was working on a different project with Ben Kingsley and Chris Evans, called The Red Sea Diving Resort, and was busy filming in South Africa at the time:

“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.”

Williams was set to play a half-human, half-animal in the film that, as Williams put it, was "a kick-ass character, in my opinion."

Although he may not be featured in the Han Solo movie, Williams has not counted out his chances of showing up somehow in the STAR WARS universe.

“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.”

In the meantime, reshoots will continue to happen, which will hopefully lead to a possible trailer in the not too distant future, possibly right around the same time as STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is released. With all the drama that has surrounded the shoot, Ron Howard and the other filmmakers have understandably been very secretive about what they show off from the set of the movie.

While it doesn't seem that Williams leaving the project will hinder the movie's plot too much, it's still a shame that we won't get to see how cool his character could have possibly been.

The Han Solo movie, still currently untitled, will blast into theaters May 25, 2018.

[Source: Deadline]