There\u2019s something about Lando.<\/p>\n
Although Han Solo is one of the most instantly recognizable \u2014 and bankable \u2014 characters in the possibly eternal \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise, it\u2019s Lando Calrissian, his conflicted and conflict-propelling best friend, who holds a special place in the series mystique.<\/p>\n
And in \u201cSolo,\u201d the first of possibly three\u00a0spin-off\u00a0films, it\u2019s Lando who\u2019s fanning the flames of fandom, well in excess of the star of the show.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s kind of strange that this is happening.<\/p>\n
But nobody\u2019s really that shocked. Not even Disney, which is rolling out the Ron Howard-helmed film in a way that seems crafted to encourage\u00a0Lando mania. (Just check the hype-to-screen-time ratio achieved in the film\u2019s first trailer.)<\/p>\n
To a degree, that\u2019s a function of Lando\u2019s unique role in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d <\/em>universe.<\/p>\n Despite relatively little screen time, Lando is pivotal in the original series. He\u2019s the guy who introduced Solo to the Millennium Falcon, who sold Solo out to the Empire, and who rallied to atone for his betrayal and save the rebels\u2019 flagging fortunes.<\/p>\n Importantly, all these events unfolded in a natural extension of Lando\u2019s personality and disposition. When plot and character are one, art reaches a purity of form that really moves audiences. All the world-building in the world can\u2019t substitute for a well-crafted web of relationships that situates a story\u2019s heroes in the drama of the human condition.<\/p>\n In the original trilogy, that\u2019s where Lando came in\u00a0and came through with shining colors.<\/p>\n But about those colors. The signature Calrissian capes and suave mustache are on full display in what we\u2019ve seen so far of \u201cSolo.\u201d (Our guy even has a walk-in cape closet on the swank, pre-Solo Falcon.) His swagger all but swallows up the movie poster, which at least one fan has shown coincidentally points all its visual cues and sharp angles straight at Lando, who beams out his brio from the poster\u2019s center.<\/p>\n Being a person of color with a Sinatraian \u201cmy way\u201d approach to success, Lando perfectly anchors and defines the world of \u201cSolo.\u201d He\u2019s more than impressive enough to draw us in\u00a0but complex enough for someone like Han to wind up in the sort of adventure that makes him worth paying attention to.<\/p>\n That\u00a0brings us to Donald Glover, who happens to be having a rather Lando-esque moment of his own right now.<\/p>\n Donald is so inventive, but he’s also an intellectual. He thinks like a writer and then he happens to also be a great performer.<\/p>\n This is the year Glover has become a full-fledged star \u2014 not the indie kind with an important and slightly artsy-ish TV show (\u201cAtlanta\u201d) or a critically-revered, but semi-obscure musical persona (Childish Gambino)\u00a0but a mainstream, instantly recognizable representative of a whole slice of American life and culture.<\/p>\n Audiences have become ready to revel in Lando at the same time\u00a0and in some of the same ways that they\u2019ve come to embrace Glover.<\/p>\n As Howard\u00a0told the L.A. Times,\u00a0\u201cDonald is so inventive, but he’s also an intellectual. He thinks like a writer and then he happens to also be a great performer. And [then there\u2019s his] tremendous work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n Like the swaggering Lando, there\u2019s something just a little haughty\u00a0about Glover \u2014 in a good way. And Glover\u2019s\u00a0got that confident vibe\u00a0to ride that energy smoothly.<\/p>\n Recounting his chat session with original Lando, Billy Dee Williams, Glover said, \u201cI had a bunch of ideas of what it was going to be, and he threw it all out the window. He was just kind of like, \u2018I don’t know. Be charming.\u2019 That was sage advice. He was like, \u2018Keep it simple, stupid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In a world as grimly wack as ours,\u00a0Glover\u2019s Lando is poised to deliver us a timely new kind of hero.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Share image via Jonathan Olley\/Lucasfilm Ltd.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s something about Lando. Although Han Solo is one of the most instantly recognizable \u2014 and bankable \u2014 characters in the possibly eternal \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise, it\u2019s Lando Calrissian, his conflicted and conflict-propelling best friend, who holds a special place in the series mystique. And in \u201cSolo,\u201d the first of possibly three\u00a0spin-off\u00a0films, it\u2019s Lando who\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}