Billy Dee Williams is making his long-awaited return as Lando Calrissian in this December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and a new clue suggests he might be bringing an old friend with him, a character we haven’t seen in the saga since The Empire Strikes Back.Â
Twitter user @CadBanesBounty took a closer look at the photo of Williams’ Lando that we got courtesy of Vanity Fair last month and noticed that Lando is wearing the same wrist-mounted communicator he had on in Episode IV. Does this mean his old cyborg assistant Lobot will put in an appearance in the closer to the Sequel Trilogy?
Lobot was Lando’s right-hand man during his time as administrator of Cloud City on Bespin. As with every character in the SW universe, his story has been expanded in comics and novels over the years, but he’s never returned in another movie since TESB.
Original actor John Hollis passed away in 2015, and the new movies have usually brought back the old cast as much as possible, so this might put a damper on the theory. Then again, someone as important as Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin was recast in Rogue One, so anything’s possible.
After all, we’ve been promised that Rise of Skywalker would do its best to wrap up the entire saga, with George Lucas even consulted to make sure it was doing its job properly. We already know it’ll bring back a major foe from the past in the form of Emperor Palpatine, too, so there’s really nothing ruling out the occasional fan-pleasing cameo as well.
Then again, Lando’s wrist-com could just be a neat little detail for fans to pick up on. Either way, all will be revealed when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives on December 20th.
