STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Director Rian Johnson Originally Considered Lando Calrissian For The DJ Role
Lando Calrissian fans were disappointed to learn that Billy Dee Williams would not be reprising the role of Han's scoundrel pal for The Last Jedi, but as it turns out, he did almost show up in the film...
When he was a no-show in The Force Awakens, we all hoped to see Billy Dee Williams return as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but alas, it wasn't to be. That doesn't mean that director Rian Johnson didn't consider it, however.
While speaking to The Playlist, Johnson revealed that he was originally thinking about Lando for the role that was ultimately filled by a new character, before realising that the roguish, but likeable, space-smuggler wasn't the right fit.
“In terms of Lando, I briefly considered — would he work in the Benicio [Del Toro] part, [but] 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.”
Probably a wise move not slotting Lando into the DJ role, but hopefully we do get to see the smoothest smuggler in the galaxy in J.J. Abrams' Episode IX. Failing that, Donald Glover will play a younger version of the character in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story.