Well, here’s some crazy news dropping on a Friday afternoon — Donald Glover, the Atlanta actor also known for his musical output as Childish Gambino, is set to play a young Lando Calrissian in the 2018 Star Wars spin-off film about Han Solo.
The news was announced moments ago by LucasFilm. According to the release, the as-yet-untitled film “depicts Lando in his formative years as a scoundrel on the rise in the galaxy’s underworld — years before the events involving Han, Leia, and Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back and his rise to Rebel hero in Return of the Jedi.”
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Alden Ehrenreich would play Han Solo. This new casting announcement is quite a score for the blossoming Star Wars stand-alone film series, which launches with Rogue One this December.
“We’re so lucky to have an artist as talented as Donald join us,” says director Phil Lord in a statement on starwars.com. “These are big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape, and this one fits him perfectly, which will save us money on alterations. Also, we’d like to publicly apologize to Donald for ruining Comic-Con for him forever.”
Glover starred in four seasons of Community, appeared in Academy Award-nominated The Martian, and makes a cameo in the upcoming film Spider-Man: Homecoming. He was also in Magic Mike XXL.
Hello, what have we here? Donald Glover is Lando Calrissian in the untitled 2018 Han Solo Star Wars Story. https://t.co/ChueOBd0fv pic.twitter.com/54JOBM1P9K
— Star Wars (@starwars) October 21, 2016