Disney Hasn’t Informed “Star Wars: Lando” Writer Justin Simien That He’s Been Replaced
Back at the Investor’s Day in late 2020, Disney announced several new Star Wars projects for Disney+, including a new series called, “Lando”, which will see Donald Glover return as everyone’s favourite scoundrel Lando Calrissian, whom he played in the film, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.
Earlier this summer, it was revealed that Donald Glover was still working on the project with his brother Stephen, who is also a writer on their “Atlanta” FX series. Initially, it was announced that Justin Simien would be working on the show, but he found out that he was no longer working on the upcoming Disney+ series on Instagram while promoting his new film, “Haunted Mansion”. It was also revealed earlier this summer by Stephen, during a podcast, that the Disney+ series will now be a film rather than a Disney+ series.
During a recent interview with The Wrap, Justin Simien revealed that he still hasn’t been officially informed that he is no longer on the “Lando” Disney+ project and only found out online:
“It was the first time I had gotten any official confirmation at all about what was happening with [‘Lando’]. You’d certainly, like, hear rumors. It’s a small town. Donald Glover and I have a lot of mutual friends. So I had some idea of possibilities of what might be happening and why we haven’t heard from anybody.”
Justin explained that his only official response to the project was an appraisal of the script, but he hasn’t heard from the studio. He also added:
“I don’t know why anybody would sign up for that again, to sort of like pour your heart and soul into something, and then to wait for several years, and then find out in an article that someone else is doing it. Yeah, I don’t know if I want to do that again. That doesn’t sound fun to me at all.”
This is one of the biggest issues with this situation and could cause issues for Disney in the future, not just with Justin but with other writers who don’t want to risk working on major franchises like Marvel and Star Wars, which has cancelled so many projects, especially in recent years.
However, Justin did add that he is looking forward to eventually watching the “Lando” project:
“The good news is that I’m a huge fan — truly, genuinely of Donald Glover, and particularly the work that him and his brother do. So I’m also happy to just be a fan and watch it, and sort of get to experience it the way an audience would, because it’s certainly what I wanted to see when I said yes to the project,”
What do you think of Justin never being informed about being removed from the “Lando” project? Let us know on social media!