‘Lando’ Head Writer Justin Simien Has Not Heard Any Update On Disney Plus Series Since 2020 Announcement
Speaking to The Direct to promote his latest film, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, head writer of the Lando series, Justin Simien, said he has “no idea what’s going on with it,” and that he hasn’t heard anything since Kathleen Kennedy made the announcement in late 2020.
Since that initial reveal, however, nothing has been shown of the series, with only a few back-and-forth comments promising that it’s still in development and that those involved are still interested. Back in May of this year, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy commented that both “Lando and Rogue Squadron are still on the books.” And previously in April, Lando Calrissian actor Donald Glover said, “I would love to play Lando again.” And that even happened one year after Glover himself strongly hinted he would be donning the capes again soon after Atlanta was done (which it’s been since last September), and later in May 2022, Kennedy said they were waiting on Glover’s availability.
Lando writer Justin Simien’s latest comments seem to echo the same sentiment. While he feels positive about his work on the series, Simien doesn’t know what the future holds for the series:
“I certainly poured my heart and spent a lot of time working with them to put together a really great show. It feels like everybody loves it. And, you know, I was told we had to put a pause on it because of scheduling, and the next update I got [was in 2020], some years ago. So I don’t know, I have no idea what’s going on with it.”
The announcement of the Lando series was made during the Disney Investor Day 2020, where The Acolyte (which has now wrapped filming) and Ahsoka (about to be released) were officially announced, Andor was two weeks into filming its first season (season 2 is close to being done now), The Mandalorian showed a trailer for the last few episodes of season 2 (season 3 and a spin-off have now premiered), and Rogue Squadron was officially announced (that’s been a journey of its own).
During that announcement, a behind-the-scenes concept reel was shown exclusively to investors, which would have indicated that the team had spent a few months working on the series. In the meantime, Simien debuted the fourth season of his critically-acclaimed Netflix series Dear White People, shot the Haunted Mansion movie, landed a Paramount Plus series reboot of Flashdance and signed on for an MGM docuseries on the Black experience in American cinema titled Hollywood Black.
Even with this news, there are still a number of Star Wars series in the works for the immediate future. Of course, next month sees the release of the highly-anticipated Ahsoka series, alongside Jude Law’s Skeleton Crew set to debut at the end of this year. Following that will be the brand-new High Republic show, The Acolyte, as well as the second season of Andor.
After that, it remains to be seen what direction Lucasfilm will take regarding live-action Star Wars series. We know that a fourth season of The Mandalorian is in the works and that outside of live-action, there will be a third season for both The Bad Batch and Star Wars: Visions, and a second season of Tales of the Jedi. Yet all of that is on hold as both the actors and the writers are on strike after the studios failed to meet their proposals for a new contract renewal.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
