Donald Glover to Write ‘Lando‘ Disney+ Series

As if starring in the title role of the upcoming Disney+ series Lando wasn’t enough, triple-threat Donald Glover will be writing the series too.

Initially, the project was being written by Justin Simien of Dear White People and the new Haunted Mansion movie. According to Above the Line, Glover and his brother Stephen will write the entire series, replacing Simien.

When the show was first announced, it wasn’t made clear which version of Lando would appear in the show — either Billy Dee Williams from the original films or Glover from Solo: A Star Wars Story — but they note that this indicates we should expect the show to be about the younger Lando “as it’s unlikely that [Glover’d] write the script for another actor to play the smooth-talking smuggler.”

Lucasfilm

Simen recently addressed the status of the Lando show, which was first announced back in 2020, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

I am attached, I think, but I don’t really know. (Laughs.) 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.

Now it seems that Simien is out and the Glovers are in. If Donald Glover’s work on the critically-acclaimed Atlanta is anything to go off of, it seems like a phenomenal fit.

Back in April, Glover said of a potential Lando series that he was “not interested in doing anything that is going to be a waste of my time or just a paycheck. I would much rather spend time with people I enjoy. It just has to be the right thing, which I think it could be. Lando is definitely somebody I’d like to hang out with. We’re talking about it. That’s as much as I can say.”

The next Star Wars series, Ahsoka, premieres on Disney+ on August 23.

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