‘Star Wars’ writer confirms Lando Calrissian is pansexual
Donald Glover's portrayal of the classic character in 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' raised some questions.
By Will Stroude
Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer Jonathan Kasdan has confirmed that Lando Calrissian is pansexual.
The classic Star Wars character, who first appeared in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back played Billy Dee Williams, appears in a younger guise in the Solo spin-off movie, set to hit UK cinemas next week.
Donald Glover’s portrayal of the Lando in the sci-fi prequel had raised questions from fans about the smuggler’s sexuality, with trailers showing him engaging in some pretty flirty behaviour with both Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and his own droid companion L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
Asked by the Huffington Post whether Lando is indeed pansexual, Kasden replied: “I would say yes. There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality.”
Lando isn’t the first canonically LGBT+ character to appear in the Star Wars movies – that title goes to Laura Dern’s General Amalyn Holdo in last year’s The Last Jedi – but the Disney series is yet to explicitly portray their sexuality onscreen; something that needs to be rectified poste haste.
“I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie,” Kasden admitted.
“I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of…
“He doesn’t make any hard and fast rules. I think it’s fun. I don’t know where it will go.”
Solo: A Star Wars Story hits cinemas on Friday 25 May. Check out the trailer below: