Star Wars: The Last Jedi doesn’t feature Lando Calrissian.
But he might yet appear in Star Wars 9.
During an interview with Yahoo! Movies UK, director Rian Johnson lamented not being able to write Lando into Star Wars: The Last Jedi… but the rest of the cast agreed – they want him back in the upcoming Star Wars sequel.
“Believe me I thought about [bringing Lando back],” said Johnson. “Believe me I did, and it just wouldn’t work.”
But he did hint that Lando almost filled the role of Benicio Del Toro’s character, DJ.
“For reasons I can’t really talk about without getting into spoilers, Lando even in the position of any… just specific story reasons that he would not have worked, like in the capacity of the DJ part – Benicio’s part – there’s a reason that had to be a new character and couldn’t just be Lando.”
Of course, in The Last Jedi, Finn and Rose team up to track down master codebreaker DJ at the casino on Canto Bight…
And Mark Hamill agrees that this would have been the perfect place to find Lando.
“Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon in a game of chance [with Lando],” he explained. “You’d think he’d be the casino boss. I love Billy Dee Williams, and you’re right, I think anyone who’s still around that had anything to do with the original trilogy deserves to come back in some way.”
Alas, Lando didn’t make it into The Last Jedi.
But now, co-star Oscar Isaac has suggested that J.J. Abrams could always bring him back in Star Wars: Episode IX. And it’s about time the coolest guy in the galaxy far, far away got to return to the big screen.
“I think that he could definitely fit into the story and come back,” said Isaac. “He was my favourite character growing up, so I’m holding out hope for [Star Wars] 9!”
“Let’s start a campaign,” added Hamill. “Bring back Lando Calrissian!”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Kelli Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Benicio Del Toro, and Andy Serkis.
Rian Johnson wrote and directed the movie.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened in cinemas on 14 December 2017.
