With the new Star Wars Episodes bringing back original trilogy characters—and steadily killing them off—it was only a matter of time until they called on the smoothest dude in the galaxy far, far away and brought back OG Lando Calrissian. THR is reporting that Billy Dee Williams is returning for Episode IX, presumably to be killed off and thus close the circle on the original trilogy. Of course, we just had Donald Glover as young Lando in Solo, but ever since Episode VII was announced, people have wondered when Billy Dee Williams would be back. When Maz Kanata started talking about a gambler in The Last Jedi, I thought for sure Lando was about to appear, but then it turned out to be a Justin Theroux cameo misdirecting us.
I’m glad to finally have Lando back because I have a lot of questions, chiefly whether or not shoving L3’s consciousness into the Millennium Falcon constitutes slavery, or if it’s more like an organ transplant. We’re probably in for a bunch of nonsense about Rey’s parents and half a dozen mystery boxes to fuel the next trilogy because JJ Abrams is incapable of telling a story without packing six new mystery boxes, but it would certainly be illuminating if there was a breakout scene of Rey interrogating Lando about the Falcon’s computer. This is the inherent danger of prequels: Saddling beloved characters with decision-making for which they have never before been responsible. With one decision Lando went from the coolest cat in the galaxy to maybe the creepiest. I, for one, would really like to know if Lando enslaved his robot partner in order make his ship fly good. (Lainey: after that satisfies the super nerds, can we get some new cape porn to go along with it?)