Lando Calrissian is a charmer. He’s the smooth-talking smuggler of Cloud City and long-time ally to Han Solo, and in 2018, he’ll be played by the equally-cool Donald Glover, the actor, writer, producer and musician who has risen through the ranks to become one of the hottest talents of the moment.
It is, in the words of Glover, the role of a lifetime, and the former Community star has already acknowledged the pressures of tackling such an iconic character in the past. Starring opposite Alden Ehrenreich’s infamous nerf-herder, we’ve yet to catch an official pic of the actor in costume – leaked set photos have unveiled key locations from the film, among other juicy tidbits – but as production continues, it’s only a matter of time before the first shots of the young Lando Calrissian surface online.
After all, we now know that Glover has completed his work on the Han Solo spinoff, as Ron Howard took to Twitter this week to post the below photo along with a caption, calling the star “wildly impressive.”
“Wildly impressive @donaldglover wrapped his work on #UntitledHanSoloMovie last night. We’re all gonna miss you Donald!”
Lando, who was played so brilliantly by Billy Dee Williams in the original Star Wars trilogy, represents a fairly different character for Donald Glover to sink his teeth into. A suave charm will be nigh on mandatory, while the chemistry between both he and Ehrenreich’s younger Han will arguably be one of the film’s crucial deciding factors. Will the actor be able to pull it off? Without any footage having been released just yet, it’s impossible to say, but we’re certainly hopeful.
Han Solo is currently slated for release on May 25th, 2018. Disney and Lucasfilm have been adamant that the sudden firing of Phil Lord and Chris Miller won’t impact that due date, but considering Ron Howard’s still in the process of shooting scenes, we wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that the Mouse House has nudged its second Star Wars Anthology film further down the pipeline. As always, stay tuned for more.