We first learned of plans for a Lando TV series way back in December 2020 during a Disney Investor Day. Lucasfilm surprised Star Wars fans who tuned in by revealing that Justin Simien would serve as showrunner on the project, with Solo: A Star Wars Story's Donald Glover set to return as the iconic character.
Unfortunately, no solid news about the show followed, and Glover has frequently dodged questions about whether he's going to reprise the role first made famous by Billy Dee Willaims.
As for Simien, the series was repeatedly brought up in interviews when he was doing the rounds to promote Disney's Haunted Mansion movie. Admitting that he'd heard nothing about the show since it was announced, the filmmaker said the studio told him they had to figure out everyone's availability.
Shortly after those comments were covered by news sites, we discovered that Glover and his brother Stephen had taken charge of the project - which is now expected to be a movie - and that Simien had exited the project. The showrunner, however, said he learned of his apparent firing on social media!
Talking to The Wrap, he opened up on that experience and confirmed neither Disney nor Lucasfilm have reached out to him in the weeks since the news broke.
"It was the first time I had gotten any official confirmation at all about what was happening with [Lando]," Simien admits. "You'd certainly, like, hear rumors. It's a small town. Donald Glover and I have a lot of mutual friends. So I had some idea of possibilities of what might be happening and why we haven't heard from anybody."
"The good news is that I'm a huge fan - truly, genuinely of Donald Glover, and particularly the work that him and his brother do. So I'm also happy to just be a fan and watch it, and sort of get to experience it the way an audience would, because it's certainly what I wanted to see when I said yes to the project."
It's disappointing to hear that not even Glover has spoken with Simien and the director went on to admit that, after reading about Guillermo del Toro's dashed hopes to make a Jabba the Hutt movie, he's in no rush to have his dreams crushed by Lucasfilm a second time.
"I don't know how it went [for del Toro] [but] I don't know why anybody would sign up for that again, to sort of like pour your heart and soul into something, and then to wait for several years, and then find out in an article that someone else is doing it. Yeah, I don't know if I want to do that again. That doesn't sound fun to me at all."
Lando doesn't have a release date and apparent big screen plans for what was once a Disney+ TV series have not been confirmed by Lucasfilm. As for Simien, Haunted Mansion didn't quite make the impact he or Disney had hoped for, and it's unclear what's next for him.
As always, we'll keep you updated when we learn more.