The iconic Star Wars hero Lando Calrissian nearly had a drastically different origin in The Empire Strikes Back, which wouldn’t have coincided well with the iconic villain, Boba Fett. The earliest concepts of Empire Strikes Back established Lando as a Clone Trooper veteran of the Clone Wars named Lando Kadar, which would affect the Star Wars franchise as a whole in addition to further teasing 1980 audiences about the then-mysterious Clone Wars. While making Lando a veteran Clone would be a fascinating bit of lore; it’d necessitate major changes to either Lando or Boba Fett that viewers might not be fond of.
When Lando first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, he was a drastically different person than the “scoundrel” who Han Solo remembered. Calrissian was the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, and he took his position extremely seriously, doing whatever he could to protect his people. While Lando betrayed the Rebels to Darth Vader, he was shown to be playing the long game, trying to convince Vader not to harm them (unsuccessfully) and turning on the Empire to free his friends as soon as the opportunity presented itself. Lando ultimately saved his friends and the people of Cloud City (though Han’s rescue happened months later) and beame a General in the Rebellion, proving that he was truly a hero.
While Lando’s appeal came from his complexity, heroism, and Billy Dee Williams’ charismatic performances, Boba Fett was iconic for the opposite reasons. Fett was stoic, with few lines of dialogue and a presence that conveyed a calculating mind and lethal fighting abilities, especially with Temuera Morrison in the role. Having Lando be a veteran Clone would have made him and Boba Fett brothers, and while Clone Troopers were shown as having different personalities in both Star Wars continuities, this would have required changes to either Lando or Boba Fett. Either Lando would have to lose a degree of his charisma or Fett his stoicism, and each option could have been detrimental to the characters.
Having Lando and Boba Fett be clone siblings would also affect the latter’s involvement in The Mandalorian and starring role in The Book of Boba Fett. While Donald Glover has already played Calrissian excellently in Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Star Wars franchise might have wanted Williams to play Fett in the Disney+ shows, requiring significant de-aging. As shown in recent Disney+ Star Wars properties, digital de-aging isn’t always convincing to viewers.
The benefits of making Lando a veteran Clone included helping to shape the prequel-era Clone Wars over two decades in advance. George Lucas wasn’t always consistent with his continuity, but the early version of Lando would provide a glimpse at the war that Obi-Wan fought alongside Anakin in before the Empire nearly wiped out the Jedi. Additionally, this would make Timothy Zahn’s description of the war in the Legends-era Thrawn Trilogy align more closely with the films (though Legends did eventually reconcile both depictions without contradicting the prequels). As far as the two iconic Star Wars characters introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian’s original origin would be detrimental to either him or Boba Fett.
