The return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Episode IX should be an interesting moment. While he’s a hero of the Rebellion and played a key role in the destruction of the second Death Star, he’s been conspicuously absent from the events of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. When Leia’s plea for rescue fell on deaf ears at the finale of the previous film, that pain was all the more visceral for knowing that Lando was out there somewhere and not answering.
Fortunately, he’s got a chance to make up for that in Episode IX, and now we’ve got our first look at how he’s going to appear as he does it. As you can see in the gallery below, Lando doesn’t seem to have changed his style much over the last half-century and looks to be wearing a very similar outfit to what we saw in Solo.
I guess a good cape will never let you down when you’re being a dashing intergalactic space rogue, even if you’re getting on a bit. The one concession Lando is making to his age seems to be a cane, which may indicate that he won’t be participating in any giant action sequences.
The character sheet also gives us a look at the rest of the roster. There’s no great surprises in Rey, Poe and Finn’s designs, though it’s nice to get a glimpse at Zorii and Jannah. Jannah’s bow is particularly interesting, too, so it’ll be neat to see what kind of Star Wars-y twist the film will put on it.
Hopefully, a teaser or full trailer for Star Wars: Episode IX isn’t too far away now, but you would at least think that by April, Disney and Lucasfilm would have deigned to drop the film’s title. If they don’t let the cat out of the bag soon, I worry it’ll just leak out on some piece of merchandising rather than get a proper reveal.