WARNING – SPOILERS FOLLOW! – If you have not seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi, do not continue. You have been warned!
During a recent interview with The Playlist, Rian Johnson talked a little more about the reason we do not see Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. According to Johnson, he briefly considered having Lando in the role of DJ, but ultimately decided that betrayal wouldn’t sit well with fans of the saga.
“Of course I’d love to see Lando,” Johnson said. “In terms of Lando, I briefly considered — would he work in the Benicio [del Toro] part, [DJ].” If you’ve seen the movie you know DJ is the morally ambiguous hacker/codebreaker who helps and betrays Finn and Rose within the span of a few hours, helping them escape prison on Canto Bight, but then selling them out to the Imperial First Order forces when the first opportunity presents itself.
“I don’t think you would ever buy that Lando would just completely betray the characters like that and have that level of moral ambiguity,” Johnson explained. “Cause we love Lando and you’d come into it with that [expectation]. And also, DJ, the character that they met, for the purposes of Finn’s character, had to be a morally ambiguous character that you’re not sure about, that you’re guessing about, and we already know that we love the character of Lando so it just wouldn’t have played in that part story wise.”
About Star Wars: The Last Jedi:
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits North American theaters on December 15, 2017. Directed by Rian Johnson and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern, Jimmy Vee, and more! Music will be composed by John Williams.
