When it was originally rumoured that Lando Calrissian, so memorably brought to life by Billy Dee Williams, would be appearing in the Han Solo stand-alone, the first name to hit the speculation machine was Community and The Martian's Donald Glover. The Star Wars team has officially announced Glover as the man for the job.
Lando, of course, is an old friend - and occasional frenemy – of Han's, they have a history that stretches back through the years, and Calrissian famously lost ownership of the Millennium Falcon to Solo in a game of sabacc. And now Glover will be the man bringing him to life alongside Alden Ehrenreich's Han.
"We’re so lucky to have an artist as talented as Donald join us," say directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. "These are big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape, and this one fits him perfectly, which will save us money on alterations. Also, we’d like to publicly apologize to Donald for ruining Comic-Con for him forever." Now we're really hoping he interrupted one contract negotiation with the words, "this deal is getting worse all the time..."
With Jon and Lawrence Kasdan on script duty, the still-untitled Star Wars Story will be with us in May 2018. Glover, currently winning plaudits for creating, co-writing, co-directing and starring in TV comedy drama Atlanta, will next be on the big screen in Spider-Man: Homecoming, due on 7 July next year.