Donald Glover discusses playing young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story, explaining that it's the only role he ever truly wanted.
Donald Glover shared what playing a young Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story means to him, explaining that it's the role that he was really pining for. After a major production kerfuffle that resulted in original directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord getting the boot and Ron Howard replacing them, the latest Star Wars film is almost here. While all eyes are Alden Ehrenreich's iteration of the beloved galactic smuggler that was first popularized by Harrison Ford, fans are also looking forward to Glover's take on the fashion-forward, suave con-man that is Lando Calrissian.
Glover's Calrissian has been a standout since the first teaser trailer of Solo rolled out back in February. And with the film's nearing theatrical debut, the actor (who has been all over the place thanks to his many projects of late) opened up about how important it was for him to play the role, given the emotional attachment that he has to Lando being the first prominent black character in a Star Wars movie.
Speaking at the press conference for Solo (which CBRcovered), Glover opened up about how he nabbed the role as young Lando Calrissian and why it was so important for him to actually land the gig. Interestingly, even with a glowing resume, it turns out that the Atlanta star also had to audition for the role:
“When I heard they were making these, I told my agent, ‘if they’re making anything with Lando in it, I have to be Lando. And he was like, ‘I hear you; I don’t like your odds.’ And that was exactly what I needed to hear. I really did audition like it was the only role I wanted in the world, because it really was. I’m just really happy to be part of this. My dad imprinted me with this kind of Star Wars longing, because it does feel like the Bible to me in a lot of ways.”
Illustrating just how engrossed Glover was with Lando even at a very young age, the multi-talented celebrity shared a story from his childhood where he cleverly gave his Lando toy his own lightsaber (despite the character not being a Jedi):
“I think as much as any, like, seven year old boy, it was like, of course you pretend to be [Lando]. I had a Darth Vader [toy], too. And Darth Vader had a lightsaber, and I bit it off and gave it to Lando. And my mom wouldn’t let me have the lightsaber anymore because she thought I’d choke on it."
Based on early reactions to Solo: A Star Wars Story, it seems like Glover really gave it his all and is (unsurprisingly) one of the standouts from the film. Some people are even predicting that with such brilliant performance from the actor, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Disney and Lucasfilm eventually green-light a Lando spinoff film - something that a lot of fans appear very interested in seeing. Compared to Han, the creatives behind the potential film will have more wiggle room to operate, considering that Lando's backstory hasn't been extensively explored before.
