Talk about a Lando Calrissian spinoff movie starring Donald Glover began when 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story arrived in theaters. Eventually a potential Lando Calrissian movie became a greenlit series. In 2020 Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced the development of a Lando show for Disney+. Since then fans have waited for Disney to kick things into hyperdrive. Now the Lando series’ latest update might be the clearest sign yet it will really happen, just not anytime soon. Donald Glover himself will now co-writing the show for Disney+ with his brother Stephen Glover. But it’s possible the Lando series will actually return to its original movie form.
Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien’s week took an unexpected turn a while back. It was revealed that he was no longer writing the Lando series for Disney. That might not have been as big a surprise for him as we thought. Shortly before the news about the Glover brothers broke, Simien told The Hollywood Reporter he was still attached to pen the series. Since then Above the Line, who broke the news of Glover’s new role, reports Simien left the project last summer because of his Haunted Mansion duties. (Why be evasive about the Lando series? Simien likely didn’t want to announce news Disney didn’t want out in the world just yet.)
That secret timetable also answers the obvious questions about how Glover and his brother Stephen, with whom Donald has collaborated with before (Atlanta, Swarm), agreed to write the show despite the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in place at the time of the annoucements. Disney hired the two before either began. But until each has resolved, we’re no closer to actually seeing the Lando series than we were before this report came out.
Additionally, it’s possible the Lando series won’t even be a series anymore. Recently, Stephen Glover noted on an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, which we saw via Deadline, “It’s not even a show…The idea right now is to do a movie.” Although we’re still unsure what kind of a project the Lando one is, Donald Glover recently noted that it will have a very specific perspective. He shared with The Hollywood Reporter, “I feel like I have enough control. And maybe you get painted as a control freak, but it’s like, yeah, control allows for the vision to be singular. And if the vision is singular, people want it more. The less it’s singular, the less people want it because they feel like they could’ve made it.” It certainly sounds exciting.
The good news is that Donald Glover’s new role in series, movie, or whatever else essentially guarantees he’ll reprise the role as young Lando Calrissian. That was still technically in doubt. Whether Glover’s involvement in the Lando series means Billy Dee Williams will also appear as the elder hero of the Rebellion is yet unknown. ( But we hope he will.) Just getting one of them back in the smuggler’s cape will be a better than getting neither of them. Hopefully, Disney will stop changing the deal and get Lando off the ground.
Originally published on July 28, 2023.