'Lando' Project Is Now Dead Says Director Justin Simien

Star Wars

Aug 4

In 2020, the series Lando was announced, intending to follow the titular character on a brand-new adventure set in the earlier days of the smuggler’s career. In 2023, writer and producer Justin Simien, the original showrunner, was removed from the project with young Lando actor Donald Glover and his brother Stephen stepping in to take the position; a few months later, its development status officially switched to a film. In a recent interview, Simien spoke with Collider about his feelings on the project and the emotions its cancellation evoked.

Regarding the development status when he was separated from the Star Wars project, Simien stated, “It was pretty developed. Yeah, there was a Bible, there was concept art, there were scripts, but it just wasn’t meant to be.” The writer was candid about how this made him feel, “You pour so much of your heart and soul into something, but ultimately, you don’t have control over whether it lives or dies, and it is a true grieving process.”

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He continued, describing his case specifically, “For me, it has to be done pretty straight on. Like, ‘I am in grief. I do not feel good.’ I have to let myself feel those feelings. There’s so much that I experience that I get to keep forever and take into the next project.” Simien’s time on this project will still be something he values for a while yet, “I can’t obviously take the storyline or the IP or the characters, but there’s so much more that I got, as a maker, and that’s mine. Sorry, it’s too late, you can’t take that part back.” Time can’t be reversed, and Simien can hold onto the creative value of the experience.

Surrounding the communication aspect of the end of the project, Simien explained, “It became clear. They probably won’t want me to say this, but I knew it was official when I read it in the trades. But the writing was super on the wall.” It wasn’t a direct line of communication, the action was seemingly a quiet one.

Simien has a fair bit of work to check out, including the series Dear White People on Netflix, Haunted Mansion on Disney+, and Bad Hair on Hulu. He also has several projects in development, including an untitled Star Trek project and an MGM+ documentary series focusing on the Black experience in Hollywood titled Hollywood Black.

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