Fresh off the news that Bob Iger wanted to pull back on Star Wars and Marvel-related content, there are brand new developments emerging for the streaming series that will explore more of Lando Calrissian’s story in the galaxy that is said to be located far, far away. A couple of weeks ago, Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, spoke to CNBC about lowering the amount of production for their two major properties in order to cut costs. “You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less,” Iger explained. However, the planning of the Star Wars spin-off continues.
According to Above the Line, Donald Glover, who had donned the cape in portraying Lando for Solo: A Star Wars Story, will be taking on writing duties with his brother, Stephen Glover. This comes after the director of Haunted Mansion, Justin Simien, made his departure from the project, which had been announced by Kathleen Kennedy on Disney Investor Day back in 2020. Glover had played a younger incarnation of the role, famously played by Billy Dee Williams. And while both have filled the shoes of the Cloud City mayor fairly recently, there hasn’t been confirmation on either actor if they would be returning to play Calrissian.
As Simien’s Haunted Mansion opens this week, the director was recently asked by The Hollywood Reporter if he was still involved with the project. Simien would reply, “I am attached, I think, but I don’t really know. (Laughs.) The last thing I was told was that they loved it but needed to put a pin in it until they could figure out everybody’s availability. I haven’t investigated further, but I’m not an idiot. It seems like I develop things with these companies and they just never happen for reasons unknown.”
It was learned later that Simien had decided to leave the project last summer when he wanted to put his focus on Haunted Mansion. It was then discovered that the Glover brothers had been secretly involved with the Lando project for months but were not able to work on it, especially recently with the WGA strike starting last May.