Disney pulls the plug on Lando Calrissian TV series starring Donald Glover

Disney has put out a lot of Star Wars TV shows since The Mandalorian bowed in 2019: The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Ahsoka, etc. It's starting to be a bit much, with its most recent show The Acolyte getting rough reviews from fans and critics alike. Disney has a few more of these Star Wars shows in the pipeline — a new one called Skeleton Crew premieres on Disney+ later this year — but CEO Bob Iger has promised that the studio will cut back on the glut of series in major IP like Marvel. I suspect that will apply to Star Wars too.

That's why I'm not entirely surprised to hear that Disney has pulled the plug on a planned series about Lando Calrissian, a rogue and friend of Han Solo who was famously introduced in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, where he was played by Billy Dee Williams. A younger Lando showed up in 2018's Solo, where he was played by Donald Glover. Glover would have returned for this new series.

Director Justin Simien broke the bad news to Collider. “It was pretty developed,” he said. “There was a Bible. There was concept art. There were scripts. But it just wasn’t meant to be.”

"For me, it has to be done pretty straight on. Like, ‘I am in grief. I do not feel good.’ I have to let myself feel those feelings. There’s so much that I experience that I get to keep forever and take into the next project. I can’t obviously take the storyline or the IP or the characters, but there’s so much more that I got, as a maker, and that’s mine. Sorry, it’s too late, you can’t take that part back."

I feel bad for Simien and everyone who was working on the show; it can't be fun to learn that the thing into which you've put a ton of effort won't be going forward. On the other hand, I think Disney does need to do some culling if it wants people to be excited about a Star Wars show again. There's only been one major Marvel release this year (sorry, Echo): Deadpool & Wolverine, which has become a smashing success. It was nice to miss the MCU long enough to want to go back. I suspect Disney is trying to do that same thing with Star Wars.

Happily, Simien himself is still gainfully employed. He's promoting a docuseries called Hollywood Black as well as working on a live-action Star Trek comedy series starring Tawny Newsome. “I literally grew up watching that show and wishing I could go to space,” he said. "I’m living that childhood dream right now.”

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