Donald Glover Is Returning to the ‘Star Wars’ Universe

Donald Glover will return to a galaxy far, far away, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian for a new Disney+ series that he’ll also write with his brother, Stephen, according to The Hollywood Reporter (and first reported by Above the Line).

A Lando series has been on the Disney docket since 2020, two years after Glover played a young version of the character (originally played by Billy Dee Williams) in the 2018 movie Solo. The Glovers reportedly signed the deal to write the new series in May, before the Writers Guild of America started.

When Lando was first announced a couple of years ago, Justin Simien (Dear White People, the movie and show) was attached to write the project. Hours before the news that the Glovers were taking over the series broke, THR published an interview with Simien where he admitted he didn’t “really know” if he was still attached to the project. 

“I am attached, I think, but I don’t really know,” he said. “The last thing I was told was that they loved it but needed to put a pin in it until they could figure out everybody’s availability. I haven’t investigated further, but I’m not an idiot. I’m not alone in that experience. But I can’t help but wonder, ‘Am I too Black? Am I too queer? And people just don’t want to say that?’ Because it seems like I develop things with these companies and they just never happen for reasons unknown.”

Reps for Disney and Lucasfilm did not immediately return requests for comment about the Glovers taking over the series or what happened with Simien’s version. 

Following the end of his hit series in Atlanta in 2022, Glover returned this year with a new satirical horror series about pop star obsession, Swarm. He’s also still prepping a reboot of the spy comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which he’ll star alongside PEN15’s Maya Erskine.