Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy might (or might not) have confirmed the subject of the next Star Wars spin-off movie at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
French entertainment magazine Première reported on Wednesday that the studio executive said that the next spin-off film will be dedicated to Lando Calrissian, the suave gambler first brought to life by Billy Dee Williams in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back and now in a younger form by Donald Glover in this month’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Kennedy added, according to Première, that there are more stories to be told around Han Solo and Chewbacca, but that “Lando will be next.”
Coins2Day has reached out to Lucasfilm for further comment and confirmation.
Solo made its world premiere in Hollywood last week and showed out-of-competition in Cannes on Tuesday. Directed by Ron Howard (who joined production after Lucasfilm fired the the film’s initial directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), Solo stars Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo, stepping into the nearly-impossible-to-fill shoes of Harrison Ford, along with Glover, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Thandie Newton, and Paul Bettany.
There had been speculation online that the next Star Wars spin-off (meaning a film not part of the franchise’s core Skywalker saga, such as The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi) would be dedicated to Obi-Wan Kenobi, possibly bringing back Ewan McGregor to reprise his role from the prequel trilogy. Ehrenreich also let it slip in an interview with Esquire last month that he is signed for at least three movies.
However, nothing on that front has been confirmed by the studio. Nor did Première‘s report specify when a Lando movie might be released let alone begin production.
Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in U.S. Theaters on May 25, the 41st anniversary of the release of Star Wars in 1977. Advance tickets, already breaking box office records, are on sale now.
UPDATE: Première has published a correction to its original article, saying there was “a misunderstanding” between its reporter and Kennedy. The correction added the following, still vague quote: “One day, we would love to tell a story about Lando Calrissian, but that’s not relevant. It would be fun to tell the story of Han and Chewie…”
A spokesperson from Lucasfilm confirmed to Coins2Day that the conversation was a misunderstanding, adding: “Kathleen Kennedy was saying ‘I would love to see a Lando film in the future, and it would also be fun to tell another Han and Chewie story.” The spokesperson also said that Kennedy did not say that a Lando movie was next up.
