While taking great care to point out how much he admires the work of Donald Glover, describing him as “a delightful young man. Extremely talented“, Billy Dee Williams, currently on the book tour to promote his autobiography What Have We Here, spoke to Radio Times about his own tour of the galaxy which most recently saw him return in The Rise of Skywalker, and make sure the world knows that in his mind despite Donald Glover having inhabited the character of Lando in Solo and a future movie being worked on right now, he is the one and only Lando Calrissian.
“I had a nice little lunch with him. He’s a delightful young man. Extremely talented,” Williams said. “But I don’t see him… I mean, when it comes to Lando Calrissian there’s only one Lando Calrissian. I created that character.”
Williams also shared the only advice he gave Glover about playing Lando: “I told him to be charming – two words! That’s all I needed to tell him. That’s all I could think of.”
“He’s part of a whole new generation. He’ll create whatever he needs to create, to bring appeal to the character,” Williams said of Glover. “He’s a very talented young lad and very imaginative. I mean, it’s not for me to say what he should do with the character at this stage.”
“I took care of the 20th century, now he’s got to take care of the 21st,” Williams added.
Asked if he would ever put Lando’s cape back on for another “Star Wars” project, Williams said, “Pay me a lot of money and I’ll sell my soul.”
While we don’t know if or when Billy Dee will return as Lando, we do know that Donald Glover is slated to forge on with a Lando movie with his brother Stephen. Could Billy Dee be a part of that project? We can but hope.
