Consider my interest firmly piqued. The long-gestating Star Wars series based on the franchise’s most compelling character, Lando Calrissian, will apparently now be written by Donald Glover, who played Lando in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and his brother Stephen. The show was previously set to be handled by Dear White People showrunner Justin Simien.
The news broke today via Above the Line and was later confirmed by Deadline, but it’s important to note that there’s been no official word from Disney as yet.
Nevertheless, if the report is to be believed, Simien reportedly left the project a year ago to focus on Haunted Mansion, with the Glovers replacing him soon after. While their involvement has been kept under wraps, they are said to have come on board before the current Hollywood strikes, and development of the project is currently on hold.
Just in case you don’t know, Donald Glover is much more than just an eminently charismatic actor. He is also a musician, as Childish Gambino, and co-creator of the TV shows Atlanta (alongside Stephen) and Swarm (alongside Janine Nabers). If you’ve ever watched either of those shows, you’ll know that they constantly defy expectations and go to some very dark, strange places. So, if this report is true, Lando might just be the most adventurous Star Wars series to date.
Lando was originally announced as “a brand-new event series for Disney+” way back at Disney’s Investor Day event in December 2020. Concrete news has been thin on the ground since then, although Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy mentioned in a GamesRadar interview in May last year that they were talking to Donald Glover about Lando, and that timing certainly gives credence to the claims in today’s report.
