A series of Star Wars fan posters imagine a Lando trilogy starring Billy Dee Williams and, unexpectedly, Jean-Claude Van Damme. A swindler-turned legitimate businessman with charisma to spare, Williams' Lando Calrissian was introduced in The Empire Strikes Back before becoming an official member of the Rebellion in Return of the Jedi. Decades later, Williams reprised the role in animated form for Star Wars Rebels before making his long-awaited live-action return in last year's The Rise of Skywalker. In-between that, the character appeared as a younger man portrayed by Donald Glover in 2018's spinoff-prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Unfortunately, after Solo disappointed at the box office, plans to continue the film with a sequel and/or a Lando solo movie were cancelled, leaving fans to wonder what might've been. Of course, many would've no doubt loved it if Williams had starred in a Lando spinoff film or trilogy of his own years ago, similar to The Lando Calrissian Adventures novel trilogy (from the old Star Wars EU) published in 1983. In fact, one Star Wars fan has even gone so far as to create posters for such a retro movie series.
While in self-quarantine because of the coronavirus, digital artist Peter Stults put together a series of posters for a Lando movie trilogy known as The Calrissian Chronicles. You can check them out in his tweet embedded below.
In addition to being reminiscent of the artistic style and design of the classic posters for the Original Trilogy, these Lando one-sheets imagine some of the actors who might've shared the screen with Williams in these movies, had they been made during the '80s. Most notably, the poster for The Calrissian Chronicles III imagines Van Damme making his screen debut as the Sith warrior Darth Maul. The villain was famously introduced in 1999's The Phantom Menace and portrayed by Ray Park, an actor and martial arts specialist much like Van Damme. It's an appropriate hypothetical casting choice; the latter started acting in 1979 before becoming a martial arts action movie star in the late '80s thanks to his roles in Bloodsport and Kickboxer.
There's also a real-world connection between Maul and Lando when it comes to the live-action Star Wars movies. Park briefly reprised his role as Maul towards the end of Solo, which came as a huge shock for those who weren't aware of the character's resurrection in the animated Clone Wars TV series and subsequent appearance on Rebels. Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan has since revealed he wanted to explore a story involving the biggest criminal organizations in the Star Wars universe in the sequel, Maul's Crimson Dawn included. Sadly, we'll never get to see that pulpy narrative play out on the big screen the way Kasdan imagined, so fan art like these Lando posters will have to suffice instead.
Source: Peter Stults/Twitter