【eroticism defition】

"No one's going to play Lando Calrissian but eroticism defitionme," Billy Dee Williams said, rapping his cane on the floor for emphasis.

This was early 2013; Star Wars fans were still digesting the news that the as-yet-unnamed Episode VII would be hitting cineplexes. Nobody knew which characters would be returning. But Billy Dee, then 76, felt a strong sense of possession over his most famous character —the one he had played not just in Empire Strikes Backand Return of the Jedi, but also in a half-dozen videogames, Mad TVand Robot Chicken.

When we met, he was waiting for a call from Lucasfilm that never came.

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SEE ALSO: Donald Glover to play Lando Calrissian in 'Han Solo' movie

As we now know, one of the few shortcomings of The Force Awakenswas a curious lack of Lando. One of what was supposedly a quartet of heroes, the man who saved Han Solo's life and destroyed the second Death Star, was given a raw deal — and not for the first time in the Star Wars universe.

So Friday's news that the talented star of Communityand Atlanta, Donald Glover, will finally be bringing Lando back to the screen in the as-yet-unnamed Han Solo movie, was at once welcome, bittersweet, and a long overdue recognition of the character — at one end of his life, at least.

Technically, Billy Dee Williams did get to play Lando again. He voiced a younger version of the old smoothie in Season 2 of the Star Wars Rebelsanimated series, as well as a plastic version in The Lego Movieand the EA game Star Wars Battlefront. He also got to strap on the blue cape one more time on national television thanks to Dancing With the Stars.

But the Force Awakenssnub couldn't help but remind fans of the problematic manner in which Lando came into our lives. Think about it: The first black character in the Star Wars series shows up two-thirds of the way through the second movie — and is revealed to be debonair but untrustworthy, having sold out his guests to Darth Vader before they even arrived.

Of course, the heroism Lando displayed throughout Return of the Jedi(saving Han from the Sarlaac, piloting the Millennium Falcon into the heart of a fully operational battle station) more than made up for the manner of his entry. But what we didn't know at the time was that Lando almost made the ultimate sacrifice.

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In a story conference during the writing of the film, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan and director Richard Marquand agreed that Lando should die during the Death Star attack; it stayed that way for a couple of days, at least. The trio agonized over how to break it to Billy Dee.

At any rate, there he was at the end of the picture — the only main human character to not be yub-nubbing over a new family member or girlfriend. (Those Ewoks weren't exactly great conversationalists.)

The original owner of the Falcon blew up a Death Star and, like Chewbacca, never got a medal.

SEE ALSO: Donald Glover is playing young Lando Calrissian and 'Star Wars' fans are pumped

Lando got short shrift in the Expanded Universe of Star Wars literature, too. Han got two trilogies, starting with the beloved Han Solo at Star's End in 1979. His old pal had to wait until 1983 for bizarre and little-remembered adventures withthe Mindharp of Sharu, the Flamewind of Oseon andthe Starcave of Thonboka.

So it isn't just that Glover has, as Han Solo movie directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller put it in their statement Friday, "big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape." No one can replace Billy Dee in our hearts, but Glover is cool enough to occupy a similar-shaped hole in our souls.

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It's more that Lord and Miller have some big decisions to make. Is Calrissian going to be the perennial second fiddle — or second mindharp, if you will — to Solo? Is Han always going to be holding the better hand of Sabacc, or will equality and diversity triumph in the galaxy far, far away?

Maybe so. "This new film depicts Lando in his formative years as a scoundrel on the rise in the galaxy’s underworld," promised Lucasfilm in a statement. That makes him sound like a co-star, not an understudy.

Given that Glover is arguably as big a star as Alden Ehrenreich, our new Han Solo, could we hope that the two get equal billing even in the title? Could this untitled 2018 film be known, eventually, as "the Han andLando Adventures?"

We can only hope. When it comes to Lando, it seems Lucasfilm just altered the bargain.

Let's pray they alter it further.

Topics Star Wars