Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian will next appear in a movie, not a Disney+ series as originally announced. Glover last appeared as the character in 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Deadline reportedly confirmed with insiders today that Glover's brother, Stephen Glover, is working with Donald on the Lando movie. In July, Deadline reported that the brothers replaced Justin Simien as the writers.
Billy Dee Williams Made Lando Calrissian Popular in the Star Wars Movies
Billy Dee Williams first appeared as Lando Calrissian — an old friend of Han Solo and administrator of Cloud City — in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. Williams reprised the role in Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
In the prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story, Donald Glover plays a younger version of the character back when he was a smuggler. Although the 2018 sci-fi adventure did not recoup its costs at the box office, Glover's performance as Lando got a positive reception and prompted talks of a Lando Disney+ series featuring Glover as the character.
“It’s not even a show,” says Stephen Glover in an episode of the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast. “The idea right now is to do a movie. Right now because of the strike, it’s like [a game of] telephone.”
Donald Glover is best known for his work on FX's Atlanta, which won him two Primetime Emmys. He is also a Grammy Award-winning singer with hits such as “Redbone” and “This Is America.”
In a video interview with GQ reported by Variety, Glover talks about playing Lando. “Lando is charm incarnate,” says Glover. “He’s kind of a maverick, which I don’t think there’s a lot of anymore. It’s hard to be the smooth talker nowadays. Where’s the line? That’s also where the danger is. How close can you get without tripping over it?” Glover continues:
“I would love to play Lando again. It’s a fun time, being him. It just has to be the right way to do it. Time is precious. The past couple of years, this pandemic s–t, it really had people experience time… People realize their time is valuable. You only get so much. I’m not interested in doing anything that’s going to be a waste of my time or just a paycheck. I’d much rather spend time with people that I enjoy. It just has to be the right thing, and I think it could be. Lando is definitely somebody I like to hang out with.”
PTFO SOURCES: The new Star Wars show about Lando Calrissian — made by Donald Glover and @Steve_G_Lover — is not supposed to be a show.
It's a movie.
👀 Full episode: https://t.co/IQzGDgbQSb pic.twitter.com/byp60HRZ6k
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) September 14, 2023