Three days after it was reported that Michael K. Williams was in talks to join the cast of the , the production’s website has now made it official that the actor has signed on, releasing the following statement:
Michael Kenneth Williams is going from his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, to a galaxy far, far away. StarWars.com is thrilled to announce that Williams has officially signed on for the upcoming untitled Han Solo Star Wars movie. Williams comes to Star Wars having played many memorable roles in both TV and film, including Omar Little in The Wire and Albert “Chalky” White in Boardwalk Empire, bringing charisma, humanity, and nobility to all his performances. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are directing the untitled Han Solo Star Wars movie from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, with a cast that includes Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Thandie Newton, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, with Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. The movie will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, Simon Emanuel, and co-produced by Kiri Hart, Susan Towner, and Will Allegra. Lawrence Kasdan and Jason McGatlin will executive produce. The untitled Han Solo movie, set prior to the events of the original Star Wars trilogy, is slated for release on May 25, 2018.
As you can read, there’s no mention or even hint as to what role Williams has signed up to play. Project details have been kept mostly unwraps since it was first announced. We do know that Glover is playing a young Lando Calrissian.
The movie will explore Han’s adventures before the events of “Star Wars: A New Hope,” including their early encounters with that other card-playing rogue from a galaxy far, far away, Lando.
By the way, Academy Award nominee (for his work on ‘Arrival’) Bradford Young is the Director of Photography on the film, as he continues to add big budget studio productions to his resume.
Williams can currently be seen in the ABC mini series “When We Rise”; He will next be seen in season 2 of Sundance TV’s “Hap and Leonard” series this spring.
The untitled Han Solo “Star Wars” film is slated for release on May 25, 2018.