A Lando Star Wars series is flying to Disney Plus, but it's still unclear who's in the pilot's seat. As part of Disney Investor Day, the company announced a slew of Star Wars Disney Plus announcements. One of them was confirmation of the Lando project and the news that Justin Simien (the creator of Dear White People) is heading it up.
Lando Calrissian was first played by Billy Dee Williams in the Star Wars original trilogy movies Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Donald Glover played a younger version of the character in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Williams then returned in The Rise of Skywalker.
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Word of a Lando series first trickled in last July when the podcast Kessel Run Transmission claimed that Glover was on board to star in a Disney Plus show.
Glover's young Lando was a standout in Solo, which experienced a rocky production process (including the replacement of its original directors with Ron Howard) and went on to be a bit of a disappointment at the box office. The movie has always had its proponents, though, and has since earned more fans while streaming on Netflix and now Disney Plus.
Disney's announcement of the Lando show did not mention Glover or Williams. The project is still in the "early stages" of development by Simien. And it's being described as an "event series," which indicates it's a one-off.
As more news comes out, we'll update this page. Here's everything we know so far about the Lando Star Wars series.
Star Wars: Lando series release date speculation
The Lando series does not yet have a release date. Unlike other Disney Plus shows mentioned during Investor's Day, like Star Wars: Andor, we don't even have a target year for the show's debut.
And since Disney's talked about all things up to 2023, we're expecting the Lando movie to not appear in theaters or even Disney Plus Premier Access until 2024.
While film and TV productions have gotten back to business, after being shut down for the coronavirus pandemic, things are still not "full speed ahead."
Since this is being billed as a limited series, Lando may be fewer than six episodes, unlike the eight for a full season of The Mandalorian. If Simien writes them fairly quickly, and casting is sorted out, the show could start filming in late 2021. That would put it on track to premiere after Andor and Star Wars: Ahsoka in late 2022. Then again, Disney Plus has several other Star Wars projects in the works that might go first, so we may not see Lando until 2023.
Star Wars: Lando potential actors
Disney did not reveal anything about the Lando series star during the Investor Day event. The Kessel Run Transmissions podcast claimed Donald Glover's involvement, but also revealed that another Lando idea is "floating around Lucasfilm," centering on older Lando (Williams) and his long-lost daughter Jannah (Naomi Ackie).
We're more inclined toward the possibility of Williams as the star.
Why? Glover is an actor, producer and musician (under the name Childish Gambino) who is highly, highly in demand. Fans have been waiting for Atlanta season 3, the FX comedy he created, for over two years. It seems rather unlikely that Glover would commit himself to a Lando show, no matter how iconic that character is and how well-received his performance in Solo was.
Still, it's a terrific and tantalizing idea — even more so if Glover partnered with Simien as a producer.
If a Lando series goes the Glover route, it could be a prequel — covering the time before Lando met Han Solo. That's especially exciting since it could include Lando's droid companion and navigator L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge). Or, if the show is a sequel to Solo, then it could follow Lando until he eventually builds Cloud City. There could be appearances by Han, though Alden Ehrenreich has doused cold water on sequel talk in recent interviews.
If the Lando show goes the Williams route, it would be the first post-sequel trilogy entry into the franchise (aside from the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special). The show could bring in Ackie as well as other actors from Rise of Skywalker. While John Boyega has been public about being "done" with Star Wars, perhaps other cast members could show up, like Kelly Marie Tran as Rose or Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca.
