Donald Glover’s return as Lando Calrissian is still moving ahead, but it’ll look different than originally expected. Though originally announced as a series for Disney+, it has been turned into a movie project instead.
The show’s co-writer, Stephen Glover (who is co-writing it with his brother, Donald) recently said on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast that the current idea is to do a movie, but that because of the writer’s strike there’s not a lot of concrete information currently. Lucasfilm then subsequently confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the project is, in fact, being developed as a film.
The series was originally announced at the Disney Investor’s Day presentation in December 2020, but we have heard very little about it since then – besides the periodic confirmation from either Glover or Lucasfilm President Kathy Kennedy that the project is still in the works. Earlier this summer, it was revealed that Stephen Glover would be writing the series with Donald, and now we find out that it’s not a series at all.
That’s a bit of a surprise, because while some of the shows have felt more like movies thematically (we might think of Obi-Wan Kenobi, for instance), the Lando project seemed to be a perfect fit as an episodic series exploring the adventures of the beloved smuggler. And given the disappointment Disney had over Solo’s box office disappointment, yet still a desire to continue on the story with Glover’s Lando, a series made even more sense. So I’m surprised that there are plans to turn this into a film, though I wonder how much of it is related to the reality that film studios – including Disney – are having to think through the streaming push versus theatrical emphasis. It should also be noted that given the strike, there is a ton that’s still very much up in the air about all future projects, including this one.
But whatever form it takes, it will be great to see Donald Glover back as Lando Calrissian. He was tremendous in the role in Solo, and I’m really excited to see more.
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