The sibling duo of Donald and Stephen Glover have crafted plenty of iconic characters together, from Atlanta’s perpetually exasperated Paper Boi to Swarm’s murderous stan Dre, but now it seems they’ll officially have a chance to put their own spin on a Star Wars fan favorite. In an interview on the podcast Pablo Torre Finds Out, Stephen Glover revealed that they are indeed working on a project centered on Lando Calrissian, the suave hero originally played by Billy Dee Williams and portrayed by Glover as a supporting character in Solo. Since that film, there’s been talk of a Lando series spearheaded by the Glover camp, and Stephen has now shared that it’s being developed into a full-fledged movie. Variety later confirmed the news with Lucasfilm. News of the Glovers’ involvement became public in July, when the tandem was tapped to replace Justin Simien as showrunner.
“It’s not even a show…the idea right now is to do a movie,” Stephen told Torre. “Right now, because of the strike, it’s kind of like telephone, all of the information.”
The Glover brothers have been branching out since Atlanta, most notably with this year’s stan culture satire Swarm. In an interview with Vulture, Stephen said that Donald has stressed to him the importance of bringing innovation and not being hemmed in by the confines of the studio system.
“I remember Donald once said to me, ‘You’re not a Hollywood writer. They’ll try and fit you into that box so they can devalue you sometimes,’” he recalled. “And then you realize you’re just a tool being used to write things for other people.”
As for Donald, who captured the charisma and calculatedness of the space hustler effortlessly in Solo:, he’s long expressed interest in donning the character’s signature cape once more.
“I would love to play Lando again. It’s a fun time being him. It just has to be the right way to do it. Time is precious,” Glover told GQ in an April interview. “I’m not interested in doing anything that’s going to be a waste of my time or just a paycheck. I’d much rather spend time with people that I enjoy. It just has to be the right thing, and I think it could be. Lando is definitely somebody I like to hang out with.”
While the 2018 film received lukewarm reviews and had a middling box office impact, praise was heaped upon Glover’s work making the character his own. (“Donald Glover’s Lando walks off with the movie,” Matt Zoller Seitz wrote for RogerEbert.com.)
This Lando news adds to an already packed slate for Donald, including new Childish Gambino music, his Mr. and Mrs. Smith series with Maya Erskine, which was recently confirmed to be debuting next year on Amazon Prime, and the long-awaited Community movie. The Glovers’ upcoming movie is part of Death Star-size lineup of Star Wars projects in the works, including a second season of the acclaimed Andor, a movie directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy focused on Daisy Ridley’s Jedi Rei, and a much-hyped film from Logan director James Mangold.
