Michael K. Williams sheds light on his former Solo: A Star Wars Story role

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I probably don't need to get into the issues which plagued the production of SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, but Michael K. Williams probably put it best when he said "I've seen a lot of crazy shit, but that was one for the textbooks." Before Christopher Miller and Phil Lord were fired from the production, Williams had filmed his role as crime lord Dryden Vos, but once the reshoots got underway under the direction of Ron Howard, Williams was no longer available and Howard had to recast the role with Paul Bettany

The role was originally going to be that of a motion-capture character, who Michael K. Williams described on the Jim and Stan Show as "half mountain lion, half human." Interesting. "He was extremely sophisticated," Williams said. "Very rich. He’d been around the world, older guy, and it was sort of a love triangle between Emilia Clarke’s character, Qi’Ra, and the young Han Solo." Williams added that it wasn't a full-blown love triangle, but more like a "pissing contest" going on for Qi'ra's attention. "[Vos] is old and [Han] is younger so it was that thing also going on, like ‘Young buck, I’ve been around the world.’ But he’s like ‘The young chick wants the young buck,'" Williams said. "So there was a little bit of that energy going on, but the relationship on paper was definitely with Qi’ra and Han Solo." It remains to be seen just how much of this will remain in Paul Bettany's take on the role, if anything, but we won't have much longer to wait.

Getting to take part in a STAR WARS film would be a dream come true for a lot of actors, but getting cut from the film through no fault of your own must sting a little. Michael K. Williams isn't all that broken up about it however, saying that some things are just out of your hands, but he did tell Entertainment Weekly that he was proud of the work he had done on the film and was sorry audiences won't get to see it.

I will tell you this much though, what saddens me most is I was very proud of the work that I did. What I believe I have created with Emilia Clarke and Woody Harrelson and Alden [Ehrenreich, who plays Solo]… I thought it was some great work. We was on the spaceship, and we all had these amazing scenes together, and I thought it was a great opportunity, and I thought it was some great stuff. It’s unfortunate the world won’t get to see it.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY will hit theaters on May 25, 2018.