Star Wars: The Bad Batch is the latest Star Wars property to grace Disney+, the first among many new TV series set in a galaxy far, far away. With the premiere of this new spin-off, we can’t help but look ahead to the remaining Star Wars shows on the streamer’s roster. Specifically, we’re absolutely starving for some kind of update on the spinoff series following everyone’s favorite dapper scoundrel Lando Calrissian, which was announced last December.
There are several different directions a Lando-centric spinoff could take. While we’d be happy with just about any version of a show about the stylish rogue, we do have a few ideas of things we’d like to see.
The Continuing Adventures of Old Lando
Even though we know Lando is getting his own Disney+ spin-off series, we’re still uncertain about the format or even which Lando will be starring in it. After Billy Dee Williams’ return to the franchise in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he could carry on his character’s efforts to liberate stormtroopers from the First Order. It would be interesting to watch a wizened Lando mentor a new stable of Rebel heroes, piloting the Millennium Falcon alongside Chewie on top-secret missions or on more lighthearted smuggling runs to pad out his bank account in between striking blows for the Rebellion. And perhaps Lando can uncover the location of his missing child and be reunited with her. As was revealed in the novelization of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lando's daughter was kidnapped by the First Order. It's likely that his efforts to rescue more stormtroopers - with Jannah's help - will lead him to his last living family member.
…Or Young Lando!
It’s been three years since the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the best thing about the film continues to be Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian. He captured his predecessor’s charisma while giving the character his own style. Fans were calling for a Lando show even before Glover’s debut, and following his scene-stealing turn, they can’t wait for more.
The show could easily focus on a young Lando before he’s swept up by the Rebellion. Young Lando is somewhat of a blank slate—most of our knowledge of him comes from the alternative universe books and comics which are now outside the film canon. That said, the films are littered with nuggets of information about Lando that could provide fodder for the show. One story arc this highly anticipated Star Wars spin-off show could potentially address is The Battle of Tanaab. Billy Dee Williams’ Lando mentioned the battle as a possible reason the Rebel Alliance promoted him to General. This was a simple throwaway line in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but we want to know more! Even in Star Wars’ extensive supplemental material, there is little information to be found about this battle. All we know is that the battle involved Lando fighting off pirates with some impressive heroics. Considering Lando’s history as a smuggler, fans deserve to see him tangle with genuine space pirates.
There still haven’t been any casting announcements as of the time of this writing, and Glover is an in-demand performer, so it’s still very much up in the air whether or not he will reprise the role.
Let Us See Lando’s Gambling Past
Speaking of Lando’s smuggling past, where’s that scoundrel Han Solo promised us? This descriptor for Lando has never been realized on screen. He’s more of a suave businessman in the original trilogy, and he didn’t have enough screen time to really embrace his scoundrel-hood in Solo: A Star Wars Story. A show about our favorite bad boy in space could feature Lando’s early years, getting by in the galaxy as a career smuggler and gambler. Imagine tuning in weekly for tense smuggling runs and suspenseful scenes of Lando playing sabacc with a vicious gangster. It would be like Casino Royale but in space. The recent short story anthology series Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View featured Lando’s ingenious cardplaying, and it’s the perfect jumping-off point for fans of the character to learn about this particular skillset of the mustachioed hero.
Lando: Cloud City Administrator
The books also shine a spotlight on Lando’s time as the administrator of Cloud City, home to the tibanna gas mining colony stationed on the planet Bespin. Lando loves Cloud City; he even betrayed his old friend Han Solo (Harrison Ford) to the Empire to protect his city and its people. Should the showrunners choose to make Lando a long-standing series, they will need to feature Cloud City at some point. The series could follow the day-to-day running of the city and the different characters who pass through each week, sort of like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It would be interesting to watch Lando occasionally have to battle it out with traders and negotiators using silver-tongued diplomacy rather than his cardplaying and piloting skills.
Explore Lando’s Pansexuality
Lando’s evolution from scoundrel to responsible proprietor are compelling story arcs, but it would be nice to see Disney flesh out Lando’s sexuality as well. Prior to the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan revealed that Lando is canonically pansexual. But they failed his representation in the film. All we got was Lando having a relationship with a droid, L3-37, voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Would Lando and L3-37 still have had a romantic storyline if L3-37 had been voiced by a man? We can't say for certain, but we doubt it.
Regardless of whether it focuses on Old Lando or Young Lando, the show would be a great opportunity for Star Wars to finally expand on its queer representation. Nearly 45 years since the first Star Wars film was released, there’s only been one brief moment of queer representation on screen. The wider canon doesn’t fare much better, either. It’s time for the franchise to step into the 21st century and allow Lando to embrace his pansexuality, without making it an under-developed relationship with a robot.
Show Us Lando’s History With Han and Chewie
Whether you loved Solo: A Star Wars Story or not, writers Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan introduced new relationships instead of building on the ones that fans were familiar with. Who were Han’s closest relations before Leia? His friend Chewbacca and his frenemy Lando. That was obvious from the original trilogy, and we expected to see more of these friendships in the film. We got the origins, but there wasn’t enough screen time to let these three develop organically. A Lando spin-off could fill in those gaps.
This is a Lando show, so we want the focus to be on him above all. But we wouldn’t mind Han being present in Lando’s story. How did their tumultuous friendship evolve? What were some of the adventures they had? Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) don’t have to be main characters, just recurring ones who show up with the Millennium Falcon a few times a season to ruin (or improve!) Lando’s day. It could give the series the opportunity to be more of the buddy cop heist adventure we expected the film to be.
Glover was captivating in the role, which was no easy feat given Williams’ towering performances in the original trilogy. Lando is a beloved character in the franchise who deserves more screen time, and he’s also the perfect character to balance the fun aspects of Star Wars with some of its more serious political and social commentary. The only thing left now is for Disney to finally release more information on the show and/or drop that first trailer. Come on Disney, old buddy, don’t let us down.