Billy Dee Williams

With only one more film left in the current ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, if there is any further fan service coming, now is the last chance.  With production expected to begin soon for a Winter 2019 release, it appears that a favorite from the original trilogy may make his long-awaited return to a galaxy far, far away– Lando Calrissian.

Billy Dee Williams was scheduled to make a con appearance at the Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo in September, but had to cancel due to a “film schedule conflict.”  Now that doesn’t necessarily mean he is definitely filming ‘Star Wars’, but Williams hasn’t really been making many films of late.  Other than making a few appearances here and there, Williams has mainly worked as a voice actor in recent years and most of the time, he’s voicing Lando in various animated ‘Star Wars’ projects.  Voice acting is not the same as acting in person.  With voice acting, it’s pretty easy to move things around and record at your convenience.  So whatever the film, Williams has to be there in person, indicating that it’s live action.

Here is the Facebook post from the Saskatchewan Entertainment Expo, in which they broke the news that Williams would not be present at their show:

Site Fantha Tracks investigated and seems to have gotten confirmation that Williams was filming ‘Episode IX’, but couldn’t divulge much more:

“We were asked by our original source to verify this with another independent source before we ran with it.  We did that, confirming that this is indeed correct (and before anyone asks, we’re not going to name our sources because that’s not how this works). Filming on Episode IX starts next month, so expect to see official confirmation of this exciting casting very soon.”

With ‘Episode IX’ being the last ‘Star Wars’ movie as part of this saga, which stretches all the way back to 1977, it would be disappointing if Lando doesn’t make an appearance.  But if he does pop up, it’s important that it be organic and make sense in the context and isn’t just shoehorned in as a distraction.

What do you think?  Should Lando make a final appearance in ‘Episode IX’?

Source: ComicBook.com