Star Wars 9will begin filming later this month and Billy Dee Williams is officially back asLando Calrissianfor the first time since 1983’sReturn of the Jedi. The 81-year old actor is the last actor of the original trilogy to appear in the new trilogy that started back in 2015 with J.J. Abrams’The Force Awakensand many believe that Williams should have been a part of the cast from the beginning. However, now that we’ve seen what the newStar Warstrilogy has done to returning characters, one can’t help but think that Lando Calrissian won’t make it out of the movie alive.
J.J. Abrams brought back Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and even a brief look at Mark Hamill inThe Force Awakens. The reunion was whatStar Warsfans (most of them) had wanted to see for years, but then Abrams made the decision to kill off Ford’s Han Solo, which stunned fans and probably made Ford very, very happy. Then, with last year’sThe Last Jedi, Rian Johnson decided to kill Luke Skywalker, setting upStar Wars 9to carry on the tradition of killing off original trilogy characters. Will Lando survive the final movie in the trilogy?
While two of the main characters from the original trilogy were killed in two separate movies, Lucasfilm has also been subverting fan expectations, which means there’s a good chance that Lando will live inStar Wars 9, since nearly everybody is expecting him to die now. Rian Johnson totally flipped the script on what aStar Warsmovie could be, a move that has pretty much vilified him in the eyes of some hardcore fans who were expecting more of the same. J.J. Abrams has talked about not taking the safe route with the last movie in the trilogy, so one can imagine that he’ll be taking a little bit of Johnson’s lead with messing with expectations. Abrams will more than likely keep Lando alive at the end of the film.
There was speculation thatStar Wars 9was going to destroy the Millennium Falcon, but that has been proven false since Disney’s Star Wars Galaxy’s edge features the iconic ship and takes place in a timeline after the Force Awakens trilogy. With that being said, we could very well seeBilly Dee Williams' Lando Calrissian get his beloved ship back after all of these years and fly away into the sunset. J.J. Abrams has yet to reveal any details about the plot ofStar Wars 9, but Lando regaining his ship seems like a good plan, especially after watching him lose it inSolo: A Star Wars Story.
Lando Calrissian’s fate inStar Wars 9is unknown at the moment, and it will be until the movie hits theaters. However, it seems highly probable that the character will survive the movie while helping the Resistance in the process. As previously noted, filming is set to begin soon, so hopefully more details about the plot start to leak soon. While we wait, you can head over toStarWars.comfor updates.
