Star Wars' Lando Series Is Moving Forward In A Big Way With Donald Glover, Following A Discouraging Update

With the long-awaited premiere of Star Wars' Ahsoka TV show for Disney+ subscribers less than a month away in the 2023 TV schedule, good news has broken about another project planned for the galaxy far, far away. Despite first being announced several years ago and a recent discouraging update, the Lando TV show with Donald Glover reprising the role from Solo is moving forward, and Glover won't just be involved in front of the camera. 

Even though Glover hasn't portrayed the Star Wars legend since Solo premiered back in 2018, the Lando Calrissian TV series was confirmed in late 2020, with speculation that he'd reprise his role. According to Above The Line, the actor is now officially on board the show as a writer alongside his brother, Stephen Glover, with io9 confirming that the Community alum will star as well as co-write.

While it's not surprising that Donald Glover will portray Lando again after the initial reports that the series would center on a younger version of the character than ever portrayed by Billy Dee Williams, the news is particularly welcome in the wake of a recent update seemed to suggest that the show wasn't moving forward. 

The Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien was previously attached to Lando as executive producer and writer, and he recently revealed that he'd been told that the project was put on pause due to scheduling and hadn't gotten any updates on development in multiple years. That seemed like a sign that fans of the galaxy far, far away should pin their hopes on the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV series that were already confirmed. 

Instead, the Lando project is indeed moving forward, but simply with Donald Glover on board to star and co-write. In fact, Justin Simien reportedly has not been working on Lando since summer 2022 so that he could focus on directing Haunted Mansion, resulting in Lucasfilm reaching out to the Glover siblings to sign on as co-writers. Donald and Stephen Glover have collaborated before, with Stephen co-writing and executive producing Atlanta as well as co-writing Guava Island with his brother. 

The news comes just months after Donald Glover confirmed that he was still interested in playing Lando again. The development may be somewhat complicated by the current WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA strike, which has brought many productions to a halt and means that other projects presumably won't be moving forward until the strikes are resolved. 

At the time of writing, neither of the Glover brothers has publicly commented on joining the Lando show as writers, and the strikes mean that such comment may not come for some time. For now, though, there's easy access to plenty of Star Wars action. All of the live-action films – including Solo: A Star Wars Story – are available streaming with a Disney+ subscription, as well as the live-action and animated Star Wars TV shows. 

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).