While we aren’t sure how much of Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s version of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” made it into the final cut, we do know at least some of the scenes that were reshot by Ron Howard. That’s because one of the biggest noticeable differences between Lord and Miller’s ‘Solo’ and Howard’s was the addition of Paul Bettany as the villain Dryden Vos.
Previous to Bettany boarding the film, the role of Vos was portrayed by Michael K. Williams. However, when the directorial change was made, Williams was unable to commit to the months-long reshoots and the actor’s role was recast. However, that’s not the only change that was made to the character. As we know, Williams’ version of the character was going to look very different. And judging by new concept art (via CBM), what ended up on the screen is perhaps the most boring version of the villain, though obviously for practical reasons (when you’re reshooting 70% of a movie all over again, and you have even less time until release, you probably don’t want to add another mo-cap character into the mix).
READ MORE: Michael K. Williams Talks About Cut ‘Solo’ Character And Behind The Scenes Drama
From a more reptilian look to variations on the lion-ish look that Williams described, we see that the folks at Lucasfilm had a much wilder idea in mind for the character. There’s even a version of the character that looks like his insides are replaced with snakes. Hell, one of them looks like a slug, in the same vein as Jabba the Hutt.
Sadly, it appears that time and money were probably the biggest factors in changing the look of Dryden Vos. With such a limited time to finish the film, it’s clear that Howard decided to go with a much more human version of the criminal, forgoing the need for motion-capture.
However, what we’re left with is a “Star Wars” villain that just seems generic. And by the time the real puppet master is revealed (won’t spoil it here, but if you don’t know by now who the big cameo is, then you must be living under a rock), you have already completely forgotten Vos. Meanwhile, hardcore “Star Wars” fans will notice that Dryden, in one mock-up, was conceptualized as a Lasat, the same race of alien creature as the character Zeb on “Star Wars Rebels.”
In the grand scheme of things, “Star Wars” fans were probably lucky just to have Bettany, in the first place.