Donald Glover to Pen Lando Script After Justin Simien Exits Project

Donald Glover is set to star in Disney+’s new Lando series that he’ll pen alongside his brother Stephen Glover.

The new limited series will find Glover reprising his role as Lando Calrissian, who he played in the 2018 prequel movie Solo: A Star Wars Story. Although the film was panned by critics, Glover’s role as the smooth-talking smuggler was well-received.

Openly gay Dear White People creator Justin Simien was originally hired to write the script, but he exited the project prior to the Glover brothers coming on board.

Simien is also the director of Haunted Mansion which is in theaters now and has not been getting much love from critics or audiences. The Disney film currently has a 40 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Simien said that he wasn’t sure what had happened with his involvement in making Lando and wondered if being Black or a part of the LGBTQ+ community had anything to do with him losing the project.

“The last thing I was told was that they loved it but needed to put a pin in it until they could figure out everybody’s availability,” Simien said. “I haven’t investigated further, but I’m not an idiot. I’m not alone in that experience. But I can’t help but wonder, ‘Am I too Black? Am I too queer? And people just don’t want to say that?’ Because it seems like I develop things with these companies and they just never happen for reasons unknown.”

For his part, Glover told GQin an interview earlier this year that he doesn’t want to take on projects that are “going to be a waste of my time or just a paycheck.”

He added, “I would much rather spend time with people I enjoy. It just has to be the right thing, which I think it could be. Lando is definitely somebody I’d like to hang out with. We’re talking about it. That’s as much as I can say.”