SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY Concept Art Reveals What Dryden Vos Looked Like Before Michael K. Williams Was Recast
When Ron Howard took charge of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Michael K. Williams' (Assassin's Creed) mo-cap Dryden Vos was replaced with Paul Bettany and this concept art shows off some alternate designs...
Ron Howard replacing original Solo: A Star Wars Story directors obviously led to a lot of changes but perhaps the biggest was the decision to replace Michael K. Williams' motion-capture Dryden Vos with the very human Paul Bettany. Apparently, much of that boiled down to the filmmaker wanting to create at least some romantic tension in the scenes the unhinged villain shared with Emilia Clarke's Qi'ra.
After all, that would have been quite a bit harder had he been an exotic-looking alien and we've now rounded up some concept art from the movie featuring a variety of different designs for Dryden.
Not only do these shed some light on the thought which went into creating the character but I'm confident that at least one or two of these reveals how Williams' version would have looked (bear in mind he actually shot his scenes with original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller before receiving the news his services wouldn't be required for reshoots). To check them out, click the "View List" button.
From one extreme to the other! The colourful design we saw in the last slide has been replaced by a much darker, somewhat more repulsive creature who, again, would have totally altered this role.
Seeing as a bust was made for this design, I'm pretty sure this is how Williams would have looked in the movie, especially as previous reports have indicated that he would have actually been lion-like!
Is his chest made of snakes or are those just tattoos? Either way, this is a far more extreme version of Dryden and he looks positively manic and definitely someone who would follow you-know-who!
Another drastically different design, it's hard to imagine this Dryden Vos being able to skillfully use a blade! Then again, there's a chance that sequence didn't even exist before Ron Howard was hired.
This slug-like creature is a total turnaround from the other designs you'll see here and I would personally love to know the thought process which went into giving him such a unique look.
Once again, this looks like a design which may have made it near the final stages and I could easily picture Williams playing a character with this appearance via a motion-capture performance.
It looks like Lucasfilm really gravitated towards these cat-like designs for a while and given the appearance of Vos' bodyguards, that does make sense (he looks vastly more refined than those grunts).
It would have been very interesting seeing this creature make an appearance in Solo but the key problem here is he really doesn't look all that intimidating whereas Bettany's version really did.
This guy definitely looks like a bona fide villain and seeing as the leader of Crimson Dawn is you-know-who, it's actually easy to imagine this version of Dryden Vos being one of his devout followers.
Another major departure from the other designs listed here, this fella would probably fit in better in a future Jurassic World movie if they ever go ahead with weird human/dinosaur hybrid creations.
There's been a lot of speculation that Williams' Vos would have been a gangster along the lines of the character he played in The Wire and this alien definitely looks like he would have fit the bill.
A different design for Dryden Vos and his guards, they're clearly all the same race but the villain looks a little more dignified and is clearly quite a bit older. It's a cool take and one which could have worked.
No, this isn't confirmation that Zeb was going to appear in the movie! Instead, the plan at one point was to make Vos the same race as that character but perhaps they thought fans would get mixed up.
This piece of concept art was clearly created fairly late in the game (it shows) and Vos' scars aren't even present here! The story behind those will no doubt be revealed in a companion book one day.