Way back at the Disney Investor Day event in late 2020, Lucasfilm announced it was going to create a brand new series for Disney+ called “Lando”, which would see Donald Glover return as everyone’s favourite scoundrel Lando Calrissian, whom he played in the film, “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.

Since that event, we heard very little about the project, but last summer, it was revealed that Justin Simien would no longer be working on the show as its showrunner and that Donald Glover is developing the project as a theatrical release rather than a Disney+ series.  

During an interview to promote a new MGM+ documentary, “Hollywood Black”, Justin Simien was asked by Collider about the “Lando” series, where he confirmed that the project had been shelved.

He also shared that the project “was pretty developed” and also revealed that “there was a Bible. There was concept art. There were scripts. But it just wasn’t meant to be.”   Justin also shared how he felt about the project not going ahead:

“For me, the answer is that you have to really face it. It is true grief. I’ve never had a child, I’ve never lost a child, but it’s what I imagine that pain might be like. You pour so much of your heart and soul into something, but ultimately, you don’t have control over whether it lives or dies, and it is a true grieving process.”

Unfortunately, while Justin had been working on the project for many years, he didn’t find out until the information had been shared by the major trade outlets

“It became clear. They probably won’t want me to say this, but I knew it was official when I read it in the trades. But the writing was super on the wall,”

Ever since the release of “The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, Lucasfilm has struggled to get many of its announced projects onto our screens. While we’ve seen plenty of Disney+ shows like “The Mandalorian,” “Ahsoka,” “The Acolyte,” and “Andor” get released, it’s been nearly five years since the last theatrical release.

During that time, numerous movies with well-known directors were announced, but the only one that seems to actually be heading to the big screen anytime soon is “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which is going to replace a fourth season of the Disney+ series.

Lucasfilm has drastically changed its plans for the Star Wars franchise following Bob Iger’s return as CEO in 2022. The company has addressed how much money it was spending on streaming originals, refocusing on theatrical releases, and reducing the overall number of projects created in an effort to improve the quality and reduce franchise fatigue.

Roger’s Take:  Disney announced way too many projects at the Investor Day in 2020 that weren’t really ready to be revealed to the public, but due to the unique situation in the pandemic and Disney needing to keep shareholders happy, Disney rushed out announcements, many of which have been delayed or never came to anything.

“Lando” is one of those projects that would certainly have been nice for fans of the character, but it also showed Lucasfilm’s lack of strategy for moving the story forward, instead, seemingly just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick and fitting in projects in the Star Wars timeline, without an overall roadmap to where it was going. 

While we won’t be seeing Donald Glover return as Lando, you can still check out his performance in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” on Disney+ now.

What do you think about the “Lando” film/series being cancelled?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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