Recently, Solo: A Star Wars Story writers Lawrence and Jon Kasdan revealed that Lando Calrissian is actually pansexual. In a fandom that was previously insulted by The Last Jedi‘s radical interpretation of old characters, this revelation obviously stirred up a fair amount of controversy. Some didn’t like that the decision was being made retroactively about a beloved figure from the original trilogy – even though Kasdan, the screenwriter of Empire Strikes Back, helped create him in the first place.
Lando himself though – Donald Glover – is totally on board with the move. As part of Sirius XM’s interview with the cast, the actor laughed off the idea that it didn’t make any sense, as he said that Lando’s cosmic lifestyle would bring him in contact with a vast variety of alien species. So of course he would be pansexual.
“How can you not be pansexual in space? 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 a good time out here.”
Many Star Wars fans out there agree with Glover that it makes a lot of sense for Lando to be pansexual, with some praising the franchise for identifying one of its most prominent, popular characters as LGBT. However, it’s also been criticized that this fact has only been confirmed during the press junket for Solo and will not be explored in the movie itself. Save the odd time that Lando calls Han “baby,” for instance.
It’s possible, though, that now the revelation is out there, Lando’s sexuality could be opened up a little bit more in his own spinoff film, which is rumored to be in the works. We wouldn’t get our hopes up too much for that, though, as explicitly gay characters are still extremely rare in Hollywood blockbusters – it’s taken until Deadpool 2 to have a LGBT couple in a Marvel movie, after all.
For now, let’s just enjoy Donald Glover own the part previously played by Billy Dee Williams when Solo: A Star Wars Story arrives in theaters this Friday.
