The abundance ofStar Warscontent coming to Disney Plus includesan event series about Lando Calrissianwith a story byDear White People’s Justin Simien. Since the only details revealed about the series are Simien’s involvement and the titleLando, there’s a lot of room for the fan base to speculate. Namely, there’s been some debate about whether the series will star Billy Dee Williams as an older Lando or Donald Glover as the younger Lando introduced inSolo: A Star Wars Story.
But it could feature both Williams and Glover, and use the extended runtime of a TV miniseries to cover Lando’s entire life like a novel. The older Lando could be passing on the tales of his adventures tothe first generation of children growing up in a peaceful universein a post-Episode IXframing narrative. Alternatively, the series could be framed by “The Calrissian Chronicles,” the memoirs that Lando was seen recording throughoutSolo. The vanity of writing memoirs in real time added a hysterically zany angle to Lando that draws parallels with Dennis Reynolds and Kenny Powers.
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The final scene inThe Rise of Skywalkerseemed to set up a future storyline involving Lando and Jannah. Jannah asks Lando where he’s from, so he tells her, “The Gold system. What about you, kid?” She says, “I don’t know,” and Lando smiles and says, “Well, let’s find out.” Like every character whoisn’t named Rey or Ben Solo, Jannah had seriously limited screen time inThe Rise of Skywalker, so Naomi Ackie didn’t have a chance to really round out the character. An ex-Stormtrooper trying to learn about her identity in a post-Final Order world could be a fascinating and wholly originalStar Warsstory – and a great framing narrative for Lando to tell his life story.
Abandoning his duties on Cloud City and joining the Rebellion to eventually take down the Empire was just a small part of Lando’s life. Simien has a mostly blank canvas in telling his story. The series could even bring in a new actor to play Lando as a kid and fill in his childhood likeThe Mandalorianhas done with Din Djarin. Lucasfilmrecently confirmed that Lando is canonically pansexual, which will be an interesting characteristic to explore in a galaxy far, far away. IfLandocovers the character’s entire life, it could finally bring an LGBTQ+ romance to theStar Warsuniverse (after Disneyignored Finn and Poe’s obvious sparks) and take a look at Lando’s greatest loves and heartbreaks.
There’s a lot of ground to cover between the original and sequel trilogies. By the end ofReturn of the Jedi, Lando was one of the highest-ranking officials in the Rebellion and a key hero in the Empire’s defeat. He’d forged strong friendships with Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, and just about every other major player. According toThe Rise of Skywalker, in the immediate aftermath ofReturn of the Jedi, Luke and Lando headed to Pasaana in search of the vaguely defined Sith dagger that somehow lines up with the wreckage of the second Death Star, and when they didn’t find it,Lando just stuck around for 30 yearsuntil Rey and co. happened to show up at a big festival and he spotted Chewie in the crowd.
AlthoughSolo: A Star Wars Storyoffered a glimpse into how they met (and how the Falcon changed hands), Han and Lando have a rich history of on-and-off friendship that Lando’s solo series can explore further. The original trilogy charted their journey from frenemies to B.F.F.s, but there’s still a lot of uncharted territory in this friendship – especially since Disney dismissed the entire Expanded Universe as “legends.” BetweenSoloandThe Empire Strikes Back, Han and Lando surely teamed up on a couple of space heists. Glover shared terrific chemistry with Alden Ehrenreich, whose spot-on portrayal of a young Han Solo wassquandered by a weak script. If this series brings back Glover, it should also bring back Ehrenreich, even if it’s just a guest spot in one episode.
Throughout the final battle inReturn of the Jedi, the Rebel officials leading the space fleet constantly underestimate Han, expecting his mission to disable the shield generator to fail. Time and time again, Lando sticks up for his pal, promising Admiral Ackbar and his cronies that Han won’t let them down. Han, of course, successfully shuts off the shield generator, allowing Lando toinfiltrate the Death Star and blow it up. Since Han was killed so early in the sequel trilogy and Lando was introduced so late (i.e. after they killed off everyone else),Star Warsfans never got to see how Han and Lando’s rekindled friendship turned out. Lando’s event series is a perfect opportunity to dig into it.
It’s a long shot, but if Disney could get Harrison Ford to reprise his role as Han (or write a check large enough to get him to do it), it would be great to see Ford share another scene – or, ideally, a lot more scenes – with Billy Dee Williams, just like it would’ve been nice to see Ford share another scene with Mark Hamill. There are a bunch of other underdeveloped, but promising friendships that the series could flesh out: Chewie, who Lando kept company in Han’s absence; Nien Nunb, Lando’s co-pilot from the second Death Star assault; and Finn and Poe, who each developed a strong bond with Lando inThe Rise of Skywalker(although John Boyega has saidhe won’t play Finn on Disney Plus).
Lando has a long, important history in theStar Warssaga, but there are huge gaps between his most significant moments in the established canon. He was a smuggler like Han who eventually went straight with a political office on Cloud City (but still madeillicit deals with the Empireon the side), and went on to take part in the defeat of two evil empires, three decades apart. The new event series can effectively be a big, multi-part Lando Calrissian biopic – an intimate character study by way of a sprawling epic.
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