Lando Calrissian Series Coming From Dear White People Creator
This article is more than 2 years old
The scoundrel Lando Calrissian will be getting his own Star Wars series on Disney+. Dear White People creator Justin Simien is heading up the project. The announcement came today during Walt Disney’s Investor Day and was followed by a Tweet from Disney.
“The galaxy’s favorite scoundrel, Lando Calrissian, will return in Lando, a brand-new event series for @DisneyPlus. Justin Simien (@JSim07) is in the early stages of developing the project.”
@Disney
With The Mandalorian firing on all cylinders, news seems to be dropping daily about a new Disney Star Wars project. Who could blame them? Mando has brought fans back to the Star Wars camp in droves and Jon Favreau has brought excitement, adventure, and a lot of Star Wars back to Star Wars, setting it on a course that may be hard to duplicate. Disney seems hell-bent on trying though.
If you recall, Lando Calrissian was first famously played by Billy Dee Williams in the 1980 Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, then returned three years later in Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi. Billy Dee would repeat his scoundrel ways one last time in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
Between Episode VI and Episode IX, Donald Glover made a big splash as Lando Calrissian in the underrated Solo: A Star Wars Story movie, which starred Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, bringing Glover on board to cheat Han out of winning the Millennium Falcon but eventually joining Han on their famous Kessel run.
After a rough production which saw directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller fired in what was labeled “creative differences”, Ron Howard took over and brought the film home. Whether it was Star Wars fatigue, bad word surrounding the production, or simply a bad story, Solo did not fare well at the box office, becoming the lowest-grossing Star Wars film in franchise history.
Of note though, was Glover’s performance as Lando. He consistently received high marks for not only making the movie fun when he was on screen but his ability to step into Billy Dee Williams shoes and pretty much nail Billy Dee was remarkable.
It is unclear if Disney is looking at Glover to return to the role though there is speculation that Disney wouldn’t have announced the new series if Donald Glover wasn’t going to be involved. He could make the series a must-watch.
Justin Simien is a nice get for Disney. Simien wrote, directed, and produced his 2014 feature Dear White People and then brought it over to TV working in the same capacity as he did with the feature film. He is highly regarded so it looks like Lando will be in good hands.
Of course, this announcement comes on the heels of the previously mentioned and highly regard The Mandalorian series on Disney+ as well as the already announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series that is bringing back Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Andor, the Diego Luna series about Cassian Andor from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Another surprise announcement was made today at the Investor Day and that was that Hayden Christensen will be back as Darth Vader, joining McGregor in his Obi-Wan series. Looks like the Force is strong and only getting stronger.
