It was just 10 days ago we got a small update on Disney+’s Star Wars: Lando series and now there is not only a bigger update, but a major change to its development. Previously The Haunted Mansion‘s Justin Simien was to write and showrun the series, but according to Variety he has exited production and now the young Lando Calrissian himself Donald Glover and his brother Stephen Glover will write Lando.
Glover took on the role of Lando, first originated by Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back, in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. That film explored the origins of Han Solo, played by Alden Ehrenreich, as he joined a group of fellow scoundrels including Chewbacca and Lando and how he ‘won’ the iconic Millennium Falcon from Lando. Glover’s portrayal was one of the highlights of Solo and has been a role he’s been keen to play again.
In an interview with GQ in April, Glover said “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 shit, 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.”
No reason has been given for Simien’s exit and while Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said at this year’s Star Wars Celebration the show was still in active development, Simien did say last week he had “no idea what’s going on with it.” However, it is clear this has been in the works for some time as Disney and Lucasfilm reached a deal with the Glover brothers prior to the WGA strike that has dominated Hollywood for the past three months.
The Glovers will write the series themselves, but with both the writer’s guild and SAG-AFTRA on strike with no apparent end in sight, we’ll have to wait and see when development will properly begin.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
