Michael K. Williams was almost in a Star Wars film. The actor was cast to play a character in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story, and even filmed his part for it. But when director Ron Howard needed to do extensive reshoots after Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from the film, Williams was already on another project and couldn't return.
Now, Williams is revealing that he was slated to play Dryden Vos. The motion capture-based character was "half mountain lion, half human," "extremely sophisticated," "very rich," and well traveled, explained Williams.
The Hap and Leonard actor also said that there was sort of a love triangle happening between his character, Emilia Clarke’s Qi'ra, and Alden Ehrenreich's young Han Solo, that turns into a "pissing match for the girl's attention." But ultimately, she's more interested in Solo.
Unfortunately, fans won't be able to see Williams' portrayal of Vos. After the film wrapped, he headed to the African continent to film The Red Sea Diving Resort, a biopic set in 1981 about rescuing Ethiopia's Jewish residents from Sudan and evacuating them to Israel. So when he got the call for re-shoots he just couldn't do it. The team later brought in Paul Bettany for the role.
"I've been in Hollywood enough to know anything can happen right and I've seen a lot of crazy shit. That was one for the textbooks. That was just so out of left field. There are just some things you just gotta say you know what it's out of my hands," he said. "I accepted that I was exactly where I was supposed to be."
Williams also gave some insight on the fallout between Lucasfilm and the directing team, Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
"I think they were taking the franchise in a different direction and it was not working with Lucasfilm," he said.
Well, there you have it.
