SPOILERS for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI below.
Over the course of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, a number of characters from the Original Trilogy have made appearances, including Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, General Leia, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Nien Nunb, and more, but somehow, Lando Calrissian has yet to have made an appearance. I've got my fingers crossed that J.J. Abrams will give Billy Dee Williams a ring for STAR WARS: EPISODE IX, but Rian Johnson told The Playlist that he did briefly consider including Lando in THE LAST JEDI.
"Of course I’d love to see Lando," Johnson said. "In terms of Lando, I briefly considered — would he work in the Benicio [del Toro] part, [DJ]." As Benicio del Toro's character wound up betraying Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) to the First Order, Johnson realized that it wouldn't exactly fit with Lando's character.
I don’t think you would ever buy that Lando would just completely betray the characters like that and have that level of moral ambiguity. Cause we love Lando and you’d come into it with that [expectation]. And also, DJ, the character that they met, for the purposes of Finn’s character, had to be a morally ambiguous character that you’re not sure about, that you’re guessing about, and we already know that we love the character of Lando so it just wouldn’t have played in that part story wise.
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is now playing in theaters, so check out reviews from our own Eric Walkuski and Chris Bumbray. Also, be sure to let us know what YOU thought of the film as well!