We first learned of plans for a Lando TV series way back in December 2020. At the time, Lucasfilm announced that Justin Simien would serve as showrunner on the project, with Solo: A Star Wars Story's Donald Glover set to star.
Unfortunately, no solid news about the show followed, and Glover has frequently dodged questions about whether he's going to reprise the role first made famous by Billy Dee Willaims.
As for Simien, the series was repeatedly brought up in interviews when he was doing the rounds to promote Disney's Haunted Mansion movie. Admitting that he'd heard nothing about the series since it was announced, the filmmaker said the studio told him they had to figure out everyone's availability.
However, shortly after those comments were covered by news sites, we discovered that Glover and his brother Stephen would instead be writing the show following Simien's exit. The showrunner said he learned of his firing on social media, a shame when there were surely better ways to handle a creative team shake-up like this.
Stephen, who was Atlanta's Head Story Editor, was recently asked where things stand with Lando and confirmed reports about him and Donald collaborating on the spin-off. However, what was once a Disney+ TV series is now going to be a movie!
"It's not even a show...the idea right now is to do a movie," he confirms in the video below (via SFFGazette.com). "That's the thing, right now because of the strike, it's kind of like 'telephone.'"
We're not shocked to see Lucasfilm change course. Disney CEO Bob Iger has expressed a desire to bring Star Wars back to theaters and spend less on streaming. A big screen spin-off revolving around one of the franchise's most popular supporting characters obviously stands a solid chance of being a box office hit...right?
When Solo was released in North America on May 25, 2018, it received largely positive reviews from critics, which praised the cast (particularly Ehrenreich and Glover), visuals, score, and action sequences.
However, there were those who criticised the storyline and screenplay, and it ultimately became the first live-action Star Wars film to be a box office bomb, only grossing $393.2 million worldwide. With any luck, a Lando movie can give the franchise a second chance...and resolve that big Maul tease.