There are a lot of unexpected cameos and guest stars in The Last Jedi. But there’s one Star Wars favorite from the original trilogy who didn’t make the cut: Lando Calrissian. Nien Nunb’s best friend was considered for the part that eventually went to Benicio Del Toro’s DJ, but “I don’t think you would ever buy that Lando would just completely betray the characters like that and have that level of moral ambiguity,” director and writer Rian Johnson told The Playlist. “Cause we love Lando and you’d come into it with that [expectation].”
Johnson continued, “And also, DJ, the character that they met, for the purposes of Finn’s character, had to be a morally ambiguous character that you’re not sure about, that you’re guessing about, and we already know that we love the character of Lando so it just wouldn’t have played in that part story wise.”
Lando already sold out his friends, including one slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler who had a lot of guts to come to Cloud City after what he pulled, once before — twice would be too much. It’s not like we’re being deprived Lando, either: a younger version of the character made famous by Billy Dee Williams, now played by Donald Glover, will be in Solo: A Star Wars Story. We’ll just have to wait until May 25, 2018, to say “Hello, what have we here?”
(Via The Playlist and The Hollywood Reporter)