When a report from the French version of Premiere quoted Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy at saying a Lando Calrissian spin-off starring Donald Glover was next up for the Star Wars universe, people understandably got excited.
Here was the quote, via i09:
“We think that the next spinoff will be dedicated to Lando Calrissian. Of course, there are still many stories to tell about Han and Chewbacca but Lando will be next.”
The Internet content machine cranked up to full blast, with story after story going up. It makes sense, of course; Donald Glover is one of the biggest stars in music (Childish Gambino’s This Is America video has been the cultural conversation for the week since its release), television (Atlanta just wrapped a fantastic second season last week), and now film, as his turn in Solo is reportedly one of the highlights.
All in the same guy! If you’re in charge of making Star Wars movies and you have him under contract, how do you not look to build around it, maybe even offering him the writer credit and his choice of director? (Hiro Murai doing a Star Wars movie, yes please.)
But, because “common sense” isn’t always how studios decide to make movies, there has already been a correction issued from Premiere, via i09 again:
“Following the publication of our article, Lucasfilm informs us that there would have been a misunderstanding between our journalist and Kathleen Kennedy. ‘We would love to tell a story about Lando Calrissian one day, but it’s not relevant, it would be fun to tell the story of Han and Chewie …’” A different translation puts that new quote as “We would love to tell a story about Lando Calrissian one day, but this is not news. It would also be fun to tell the story of Han and Chewie.”
So, we don’t yet have a confirmed Lando movie. But given the outburst of enthusiasm for the idea, hopefully this pushes them in that direction. Unless it costs us a third season of Atlanta.
[i09]
