The Star Wars franchise is heading in new and exciting directions. Disney has brought in fresh blood and opened the spectrum of the universe up to include tons of potential spin-offs, origin stories and straight up sequels. It’s all pushing forward at this point, but even so, the producers have smartly reached out to biggest names from the original trilogies in the name of finishing their stories properly. When Episode VII is released, we’ll see plenty of their smiling faces, but unfortunately, it now seems like at least one classic character will be missing: Lando Calrissian.
TMZ cameramen were out and about the other day when they spotted Billy Dee Williams. So, of course, they asked him the one question every single Star Wars fan wants to know. Would he be willing to come back and film a segment for Episode 7?
"Sure. I think a lot of people would love to see Lando come back."
Sounds awesome, right? Well, unfortunately, it seems producers may not have the same feelings as Williams. Later in the same interview, he readily admitted no one from Disney or Star Wars has contacted him, and he hasn’t been asked to shoot anything. In fact, he seemed completely unaware that Star Wars: Episode 7 already started filming a few days ago.
No doubt a higher percentage of actors and actresses than we would care to admit would respond pretty negatively to such news, especially when peppered with follow-up questions, but Williams was as comfortable and smooth as ever. He said he has nothing to be bitter about and thinks Disney is doing things the right way. That’s pure class and exactly what you would expect from a man who was his generation’s version of The Most Interesting Man In The World…
Williams spent a few weeks competing on this season’s version of Dancing With The Stars. At 77, he’s still extremely mobile, and with plenty of time on his hands, he’d gladly drop everything to play Lando one more time. Obviously, he’s not as central to the franchise as some of the others, but it seems like producers would be wise to work him in somewhere and throw a few lines his way. It would add a little more credibility to the time gap, and perhaps more importantly, it would go over really well with the fans.
