Donald Glover is officially your new Lando Calrissian. Lucasfilm has announced that Glover will play the younger version of Star Wars’ Cloud City administrator turned Rebel Alliance general in the upcoming stand-alone Han Solo film.
Glover will join Alden Ehrenreich, who was confirmed to play the young Solo during Star Wars Celebration in July.
According to the press release, the upcoming film will depict “Lando in his formative years as a scoundrel on the rise in the galaxy’s underworld — years before the events involving Han, Leia, and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back and his rise to Rebel hero in Return of the Jedi.”
The original Calrissian, of course, was played by Billy Dee Williams.
The still-untitled Han Solo film will be helmed by Lego Movie directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from a script written by veteran Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan and son Jon Kasdan. The directing duo are already cracking jokes that have us all very hopeful for the tone and tenor of this stand-alone Star Wars film.
“We’re so lucky to have an artist as talented as Donald join us,” said Lord and Miller in the announcement. “These are big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape, and this one fits him perfectly, which will save us money on alterations. Also, we’d like to publicly apologise to Donald for ruining Comic-Con for him forever.”
Glover can currently be seen starring in FX’s Atlanta, a series he also created, as a young college dropout trying to get his cousin’s rap career to take off. He is also known for his role as Troy Barnes in Community as well as rapper Childish Gambino, and is set to appear in the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming.
The untitled Han Solo movie will be released in 2018.
