Credit: LucasfilmDonald Glover, the star of the upcoming Star Wars: Lando (official title TBD) movie, has an opinion that surely won’t anger the fandom: the series needs to get “more fun.”
It is indisputable that the fanbase of George Lucas’s franchise from a galaxy far, far away has become pretty hostile these days, so Donald Glover might be getting a huge wave of backlash in the next few hours.
In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal, the two-time Emmy Award winner revealed some thoughts about Star Wars, including that the series needs to lighten up a bit from all of the Skywalker family drama.
Donald Glover spoke about his upcoming Lucasfilm movie project, which he is co-writing with his brother and frequent collaborator Stephen Glover. The Lando film was originally envisioned as a Disney+ limited series (similar to the Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor) created by Justin Simien, but at some point, it reconfigured as a film (so, the exact opposite of Obi-Wan Kenobi).
Of Lando, Glover said, “I just want it to be fun. As a Star Wars fan myself, I think it’s important that there’s just — there just needs to be more fun being had.”
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The writer-actor-director-rapper-Atlanta creator continued, saying, “It’s very hard to have fun right now. It’s tough because there are very serious things happening. Those are the only things that connect us, weirdly, so I get why things are serious, but part of the human experience, I believe, is we have a responsibility to have an enjoyment, and I just feel like we’re lacking in that department.”
There is an argument to be made that Star Wars has become pretty self-serious, what with everything from The Acolyte being considered “woke” for featuring POC as protagonists (and lesbian space witches, to be fair) and endless examinations of the fallout of the trauma of the Clone Wars, thanks to Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni.
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He wrapped things up on a lighter note, saying, “Star Wars, I love it, but sometimes it be super serious, sometimes it be like way too serious and everything that has to do with the Skywalkers is so serious…Lando, I think the best part about him is he’s a scoundrel, and I feel like people can relate to that, and he’s probably like, ‘Man, this war is wack. I need money,’ which I feel like everyone can relate to.”
Donald Glover first appeared as Lando Calrissian (previously portrayed by Billy Dee Williams) in Solo: A Star Wars Story, the prequel film starring Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo. The film was notoriously the first movie in the franchise to lose money for the studio, but it sounds like Glover was able to get out of it pretty unscathed. Let’s see if Star Wars fans come at him over his sense of “fun.”
Do you think Star Wars is fun?