Paul Bettany joins Han Solo movie to replace Michael K. Williams

After The Wire actor Michael K. Williams had to drop out of the Han Solo spinoff movie because of scheduling conflict, it looks like the role itself isn’t being cut but is instead being recast. A recent tweet from the film’s director Ron Howard suggests Paul Bettany might be taking over the role (it was later confirmed by the director in a follow-up tweet). Although, we know it’s not the exact same role. According to SlashFilm, while Bettany will play a character Williams was supposed to play, the character will now be human instead of a motion-capture alien. A Deadline story also claims it might be an entirely new character but will serve the same function as Williams’s character. At the moment we can only speculate what the character will be like. Howard and Bettany have previously worked together on A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code.

With the movie going through reshoots now after the original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller got fired, we’re hoping there isn’t any more controversy surrounding this rather beleaguered production. This might also not be the last time we see Williams in a Lucasfilm production. He expressed no bitterness over the changes and won’t say that this might be the final time we’d see him (or not see him, in this case). The untitled film is set to hit theatres in May 2018.