Wes Anderson's latest directorial effort, Asteroid City, will be the first since his feature-length debut Bottle Rocket to not feature Bill Murray. The auteur director recently clarified Murray's absence amid misconduct allegations.

The director recently spoke to IndieWire about Murray and assured fans that the allegations against the actor will not impact their working relationship.

“My experience with Bill is so extensive. Bill was such a great supporter of me from the very beginning,” said Anderson.

He added, “I don't want to speak about somebody else's experience but he's really part of my family. You know, he's my daughter's godfather. In fact, he actually baptized her. He's the one who splashed the water.”

But when the topic of Anderson's latest film, Asteroid City, arose, the director clarified Murray's absence. “Bill was supposed to be in the movie [Asteroid City]. It's not a great thing to say, ‘Well this person was supposed to play this part.' Once someone gets a part, you're supposed to say, ‘Well, this is their part.' But in this case, because there was some confusion about what happened with Bill — he was supposed to play the motel manager who Steve Carrell plays, and Bill got COVID four days before he was supposed to start shooting,” he said.

“He was in Ireland and in the case of our movie, we had schedules of so many people that are all puzzled around. The people who Bill was supposed to play scenes with were going to be gone by the time he cleared the COVID protocols and stuff. And in fact, he was quite sick. So Bill missed this part and Steve Carrell came in quite suddenly. He was great, I loved having him. I met him, he arrived, and we were immediately shooting,” Anderson said.

It turns out that Murray and Anderson still ended up catching up after he got better from COVID. “Then when Bill got better, he came to Spain. At the end of the movie [where Asteroid City was shot], we finished the movie, and Bill and I got in a car and drove out to France. It was a great way to finish but it was the first time I hadn't had him in a movie in a long time,” Anderson concluded.

He's right — it's actually been over two decades since Wes Anderson last had a cast without one Bill Murray. Since 1998's Rushmore, Murray has appeared in every one of his films with varying screen time (for example, he was the titular character in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but has a very small part in The French Dispatch). Murray has also recently been in the news for his reported relationship with Kelis.

Asteroid City will be released in limited theaters on June 16 before expanding to a national rollout on June 23.