Star Wars fan favourite Lando Calrissian could reappear in forthcoming episodes of the long-running space opera saga, producer Lawrence Kasdan has claimed.
In a newly-posted interview with Vanity Fair, the co-screenwriter of upcoming instalment The Force Awakens said acolytes might not have seen the last of the iconic former smuggler turned rebel leader.
Kasdan, who also co-wrote the film that introduced Billy Dee Williams as Calrissian, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, said: “Lando, I don’t think, is finished in any way, shape, or form.” However, he also signalled that the character would not be appearing in JJ Abrams’ The Force Awakens this December.
Williams will be 80 by the time the next Star Wars film but one, currently titled simply Episode VIII, hits cinemas in 2017. However, he did provide voice work for a recent episode of the Star Wars Rebels animated series as Calrissian. New Star Wars studio Disney is also developing a series of Star Wars “Anthology” movies, some of which are expected to revisit iconic characters from the original trilogy such as Boba Fett and Yoda. So the role could yet be recast with a younger actor stepping in to portray Calrissian’s back story before losing the Millennium Falcon to Han Solo in a card game and becoming administrator of Cloud City.
Kasdan also revealed that he and Abrams are working hard to ensure fans don’t walk away from the new movie with a sense that it ran on half an hour too long, and admitted the film-making team were prepared to “kill their darlings” if necessary by excising much-loved details for the sake of pacing.
“One of the things that we always refocus on from the get-go was that it not be one of these very long, bloated blockbusters,” he said. “A lot of very entertaining movies lately are too long. In the last 20 minutes, you think, ‘Why isn’t this over?’ We didn’t want to make a movie like that.
“When it’s over you’ll say, ‘I wish there’s more.’ Or, ‘Wait, is it over?’ There will be constant critical looking at [the movie] from now to the end, saying, ‘Do we need this? Do we need that? Is it better if this comes out, even though we love it?’”
