Donald Glover‘s Lando Calrissian is not returning in a new Star Wars series, rather in a theatrical feature film. Deadline has confirmed with insiders that the project is pivoting from a Disney+ series to the big screen.
The news was revealed Thursday via the actor’s brother and fellow Atlanta EP Stephen Glover, who was working on the project with Donald. News broke in July that the duo replaced Justin Simien as the writers of Lando.
“It’s not even a show,” the three-time Atlanta Emmy nominee revealed in an episode of 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’s younger take on the galaxy’s notable gambler and double-crosser first appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The 2018 movie bombed with a global gross of $392.9M, but the pic’s release was preceded by news of its change in filmmakers, going from fan faves Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to Ron Howard. Despite the pic misfiring, Glover’s Lando — played by Billy Dee Williams in the first two Star Wars sequels and 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker — was a hit with fans.
It was announced at a Disney investor day back in December 2020 that Lando would become a Disney+ series. It was also recently announced that Disney+ would be making less product for its pipeline, thus spacing out programming.
The original character of Lando Calrissian was made famous by Billy Dee Williams who first appeared as the character in the 1980 movie, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Williams reprised the role in 1983’s Return of the Jedi and 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
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