It looks as though the legendary Lando Calrissian will return to Star Wars in an upcoming episode of Star Wars Rebels.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Billy Dee Williams don his signature cape and head off to the galaxy far, far away… but while it seems he won’t be back in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, he will appear in an episode of Star Wars Rebels.
And the galaxy just got that little bit cooler.
“We can confirm that Billy Dee Williams is indeed reprising his iconic Star Wars role in Disney XD’s animated series Star Wars Rebels,” said Entertainment Weekly. “Since Rebels is a prequel, he’ll play a younger and less experienced version of the smooth-talking space pirate.”
And it looks as though they’ve even provided us with a run-down of what to expect of the all-new episode.
“In the episode, Zeb loses the droid Chopper to [Lando] in a game of cards, and the crew of the Ghost agrees to help him make a dangerous run to get their astromech back,” they reveal. But it seems that it’s Hero who really captures his interest…
“Lando certainly has swagger,” says Billy Dee as he reprises the role. “It’s the smile, the charm and the… I have a good time with it! I think that my voice is Lando, my persona is Lando.”
But what can we expect from this new appearance?
Since Star Wars Rebels is a prequel to the original trilogy, it looks as though we finally get a glimpse of what life was like during his scoundrel years, before he became Administrator of Bespin cloud city.
“This is a real good introduction to who he is, all the things that you’ve heard about him… a kind of charming scoundrel.”
Of course, this is just a single episode in the Star Was Rebels series… but it looks as though Lando may return for even more adventures with the founders of the Rebellion. And he might just help them out of a pinch or two.
“It is a time period where we can explore a little bit more of what he’s up to,” said producer Dave Filoni. “And what influence he has on our rebels.”
Will the Rebels meet him again in the future? For now, we’ll have to wait and see… but the Force is strong with this one.
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