Amid 'Ahsoka' Success, 'Star Wars' Drops Bombshell Movie News

It’s been a big year for Lucasfilm, with Star Wars spinoffs like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka taking Disney+ by storm. But even more so, it’s been a big year for movie announcements, with the studio adding several new projects to its upcoming release slate after being glaringly absent from theaters since 2019. And now, it looks like one long-awaited Disney+ series might be getting the cinematic treatment after all.

Related: Enjoy ‘Ahsoka,’ New ‘Star Wars’ Content Canceled or Delayed

Star Wars TV shows have earned mixed reviews in recent years, with many claiming that the six-episode miniseries format forces stories to drag on instead of being edited down to a tight, 90-minute feature film. While multi-season shows can take their time developing characters, with the added benefit of adding “filler” episodes, miniseries have to move at a much faster pace but, at the same time, offer a low-stakes way for harried audiences to get immersed in scripted drama.

While miniseries like HBO’s Chernobyl, Netflix’s Unorthodox, and Disney+’s WandaVision all proved to be massive hits for their respective streaming services, Star Wars and Lucasfilm haven’t fared as well. Although the 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries pulled in impressive numbers for Disney’s streamer, it didn’t exactly land well with fans of critics. 

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Similarly, The Book of Boba Fett was slammed for its admittedly less-than-impressive action sequences, hilariously sluggish speeder chases, and random Mandalorain-centric midpoint that saw Pedro Pascal taking the spotlight in a completely Star Wars different show.

Ahsoka, Andor, and animated projects like the Tales of the Jedi anthology series have been among a few of the most recent Disney+ Star Wars spinoffs to come out relatively unscathed. With plenty more on the horizon, including Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte, Lucasfilm has a chance to redeem itself in the TV landscape. But according to a new report, one of the franchise’s more buzzy shows, Lando, is ditching Disney+ in favor of heading to theaters.

Lando has been stuck in development limbo since December 2020, when it was initially announced as a movie and, later, a Disney+ series. Back at Star Wars Celebration 2022, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed there had been “no movement” on Lando thanks to Donald Glover—who played the iconic character first portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2016)—busy schedule.

However, after a long period of radio silence, it seems like Lando is actually being written as a movie. News of Donald Glover and his brother Stephen taking over as showrunners for Haunted Mansion (2023) director Justin Simien broke earlier this summer, and it seems like the duo is full-steam ahead on the upcoming project, with Stephen offering a surprising update during a recent episode of the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast.

Speaking on the show, the Star Wars writer revealed that Lando “Is not even a show…the idea right now is to do a movie,” quipping that “the nerds will figure it out anyway” before Lucasfilm gets the chance to confirm anything:

Glover: Yeah, we are a – it’s not even a show. 

Torre: Should we bleep it?

Glover: I am sure the nerds will figure it out anyway. They will read my lips or something.

Torre: But wait, you said it’s not even a show?

Glover: No. The idea right now is to do a movie. But, that’s the thing, right now, because of the [writers’] strike it is kind of like telephone.

Torre: So I can be an information broker between you and the Walt Disney Company? Guys, they are doing a movie.

While this is no official announcement, this comes as unexpected news considering Lucasfilm just confirmed three new Star Wars films during April’s Star Wars Celebration Europe: a Rey (Daisy Ridley) solo movie directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a “Mando-Verse” crossover event helmed by Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni, and a Dawn of the Jedi film directed by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s (2023) James Mangold.

If this Lando update ends up being true—which it sounds like it is, given that this news came straight from the screenwriter himself—this could hint at some positive change for the future of Lucasfilm moving forward. 

Star Wars fans have long demanded a return to theaters since the franchise’s last theatrical endeavor, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019), premiered nearly four years ago. Much to fans’ disappointment, Obi-Wan Kenobi was initially pitched as a movie trilogy, though it was later adapted to a short-form TV show to expand the brand’s presence on Disney+.

Lando could prove once and for all that not every Star Wars story has to be a TV show and that the studio might benefit from leaving its scattershot streaming mindset in the past. Star Wars is, for many, a purely cinematic experience, and a Lando spinoff movie could be the perfect project to get people back to the theaters with such a familiar IP and a beloved character who dates back to George Lucas’ Original Trilogy.

There’s no word yet on when Lando will hit theaters, but it’ll be interesting to hear story specifics as the project inches closer to completion, hopefully, soon.

Do you think the Lando project should be a movie or a Disney+ series? Let us know in the comments below.