During a town hall interview with his co-stars on Sirius XM’s Entertainment Weekly Radio, Donald Glover revealed he would be interested in starring in a movie centered around his Star Wars character, Lando Calrissian. "It would always be fun to be Lando again,” Glover said of a possible spin off. “I would love to do it again. It’s really fun."
Glover also explained how much he enjoys being in a Star Wars film separate from the usual Skywalker narrative "because it's almost like the Bible." He prefers being in a world where "we're just like hustlers and gamblers and space pirates, essentially, so you can do a lot more and have a lot more fun."
Even though a Lando spinoff film doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, Glover said he’d be interested in helping out with the writing process if it does. “It would be cool to see, like, Frasier in Space—like, a high-end guy in space. All of these characters are very specific and they have very specific points of view, so it’s always going to be fun to see them traveling around to a planet that is the opposite of what they’re used to. ... And all of that seems like it would be fun to write, for sure. But it also is nice to not have to write that. It’s also nice to just, you know, show up in a cape and get pointed in the right direction."
Last week, Solo: A Star Wars Story screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan made news when he revealed that Donald Glover’s character Lando Calrissian is pansexual. Glover expanded on Kasdan’s comments when asked if he knew Lando was pansexual while filming.
“How can you not be pansexual in space?” Glover responded. “There are so many things to have sex with. I didn’t think that was that weird. Yeah, he’s coming on to everybody. I mean, yeah, whatever. It just didn’t seem that weird to me 'cause I feel like if you’re in space it’s kind of like, the door is open! It’s like, 'No, only guys or girls.' No, it’s anything. This thing is literally a blob. Are you a man or a woman? Like, who cares? Have good time out here.”
When Kasdan made the reveal last week, he said he loves Calrissian's "fluidity―sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”
On SiriusXM, Glover added, "He’s somebody who goes around and tries everything, and I just didn’t think about it that much. ... But having somebody tell me that, I’m like, okay, cool, makes sense to me." The Atlanta creator hinted at Lando’s sexual flexibility while hosting Saturday Night Live prior to Kasdan's interview.
Some have criticized the move to label Lando pansexual, calling it lazy, queerbaiting, and over-generous by not actively trying to present a queer character onscreen.
Billy Dee Williams first gave life to Lando 38 years ago today in The Empire Strikes Back. Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters May 25.
