It seems that Lando Calrissian was going to make his long-awaited return in Star Wars: The Force Awakens rather than Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. Both actor Billy Dee Williams and director JJ Abrams wanted the hustler-turned-Rebel hero to appear in the first movie of the sequel trilogy, but those plans were ultimately scrapped for time.
Ever since the announcement of further installments of the Star Wars franchise under Disney, fans had been clamoring to see the former Baron Administrator of Cloud City again. Alas, both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi came and went without word or sight of the dashing rogue who helped destroy the second Death Star and nearly swept Princess Leia off her feet with the kiss of a hand. A younger version of Lando, played by Donald Glover, was featured in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and he made a few one-off appearances in the Star Wars Rebels animated show, but these stories were set in the past. Fans wanted to see Lando post-Return Of The Jedi, and wanted to know what the beloved scoundrel was up to in the years since the defeat of the Galactic Empire.
As reported by Vanity Fair, Abrams wanted to grant that wish as far back as his first foray into that galaxy far, far away in 2015 but he couldn’t fit Williams' Lando Calrissian in the movie. “Having Lando back in Star Wars is something that [co-writer] Larry Kasdan and I wanted to do in The Force Awakens, just as much as I wanted to have Luke training Rey,” he said in an interview. “I was so excited about things that we just realized we could never, ever get to.”
Once he was signed on to direct The Rise Of Skywalker, Abrams gladly called Williams up to reprise his iconic role, and was overjoyed when he accepted. “He’s just wonderful and funny and fascinating and curious, and he cares so much… Having his spirit and his personality, and his swagger, and that fucking smile, which is the greatest thing that, maybe, God ever made…He’s just, you just can’t deny the guy. Getting to see him in a scene with our characters, it just feels so right.” This sentiment is shared by Williams, as told in an interview at the Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker global press conference yesterday. “I didn’t think that it would happen. I just wrote it off, you know? And I said, ‘Well, I did what I had to do, and that was it.” He added that coming back has made him “a very, very happy human being.”
At first, it wasn’t certain Williams, and by extension Lando, would be returning in The Rise Of Skywalker at all, but once the previous director, Colin Trevorrow, stepped down from the Star Wars movie due to creative differences with Disney, Abrams was called back to both complete the trilogy he started and fulfill the wish that he and Williams shared. Like most of the plot, not much is known about Lando’s role in the ninth and final Skywalker Saga film, but he has been shown in the cockpit of the ship he once owned, the trusty Millennium Falcon, flying into battle against the First Order with a warm smile on his face - a smile many fans will be sharing once they see Lando in action once more.
It may have happened later than most would have wanted, but the older Lando's return brings up many interesting possibilities, such as gaining insight into his actions since the end of the original trilogy, his coming to terms with the losses of both Luke and Han, and his feelings toward Ben Solo, the boy he most certainly helped to raise before he became Kylo Ren. But most of all, fans will be excited to see good old Lando Calrissian fire up the Falcon one last time when Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker hits theaters in a couple of weeks.
Source: Vanity Fair
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