Donald Glover Explains Reason For ‘Star Wars’ Return

Donald Glover’s passion for Star Wars encouraged him to return to the franchise.

The 40-year-old actor is set to reprise his role as Lando Calrissian in a new spinoff movie and explained how his love for the character inspired him to re-enter the legendary space opera.

Donald told The Hollywood Reporter: "[Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-star] Maya [Erskine] and I talk about nos a lot, it's the only power you have in this industry. But I said yes because I like the characters and my kids love Star Wars.

“And at this point, I just know when something’s going to be good, because you’re really fighting the industry when you [put your imprint on a franchise of that magnitude]. And it’s not like ... I was going to say, and it's not like I hate the industry, but now I’m like, ‘Do I hate the industry?’”

Glover initially played the part of Lando in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story and recalled how Billy Dee Williams — who first starred the character in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back — told him to be “charming” as the space smuggler.

Disney

Glover explained...

I was like, ‘I’ve always felt like this character could do this, and he represents this, and I kind of feel like he comes from here, and it’s very obvious he has a lot of taste, so maybe he grew up seeing that from afar? Because I’m like that. Maybe he saw it from other planets and was like, ‘I want to be that.’

“He just let me ramble on and on,” Glover added, “and then finally I was like, ‘So, what do you think?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t know about all that. Just be charming.’”