The excitement about the upcoming Star Wars movie ‘The Force Awakens’ is growing with each passing week but the question on many people’s lips is, where is Lando Calrissian?
Questions continue to be asked about why the character is not returning.
Lando Calrissan was played by smooth talking Billy Dee Williams and he appeared in two of the beloved original Star Wars movies: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Now 78 the actor is as busy as ever and has built up an impressive CV of movies. However, the New York native is still best known as Lando. This year alone he voiced the animated Lando in the Star Wars Rebels TV series as well as in the Star Wars Detours TV series. He was also the voice of Lando in the hugely successful Lego movie.
Reprising their roles from the original trilogy are Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker); Harrison Ford (Han Solo); Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia); Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca); Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Anthony Daniels (C-3P0) so why not Billy as Lando?
It seems odd that self-confessed Star Wars fan and director of the new film J.J Abrams would ignore the character that is a fan favourite.
“It is thrilling to be working on this film. I have been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid,” J.J Abrams told fans previously in a video message.
Some of the films Billy Dee Williams has been in include Batman in 1989 with Michael Keaton, and Nighthawks in 1981 with Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer. More recently he appeared in TV series NCIS in 2012 and 2014 and in Glee in 2014. He also appears at a number of conventions each year to meet and greet fans. He has said he would love to play Lando again, but it seems that he will not be venturing into a galaxy far, far away just yet.
Other actors who have joined the cast are Gwendoline Christie who is best known for playing Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones; she is playing a character called Captain Phasma,while Domhnall Gleeson is aboard as General Hux.
It is expected that the new Star Wars movie will break records when it is released late this year. It is also believed that Darth Vader will be a martyr figure in the film and that in it a whole new evil empire is ready to take over. J.J Abrams is known for keeping plots under lock and key so it may well be that Williams may pop up in some of the next movies in what is thought will be a whole new trilogy. A new actor may also step into Williams’ shoes to play a younger Lando in a stand-alone film about a young Han Solo.
There have been rumours that John Boyega, who is starring in ‘The Force Awakens’ may in fact be Lando’s son. His character has just been named so far as ‘Finn’ and he appears in the trailer as a stormtrooper. All remains to be seen! It still appears that Lando is the character fans are looking for!
The film is released nationwide on December 17th.