Film

Lando From ‘Star Wars’ Has Been Canonically Confirmed As Pansexual And That’s Good I Guess?

“I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie”

by Patrick Lenton  18 May 2018
Lando Calrissian

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When it comes to the Star Wars universe, it’s hard to think of a sexier character than Lando Calrissian (except for that jazz-playing elephant in the cantina, perhaps. Talent can be really hot y’know?) Well, good news ladies, gentlemen, aliens and other — Lando has now been canonically confirmed as pansexual.

In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Jonathan Kasdan, one of the writers for the new Solo: A Star Wars Story answered a question that a lot of fans have long suspected about the dapper and morally dubious Lando Calrissian.

When asked about whether or not Lando was pansexual, Kasdan answered: “I would say yes.”

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The definition of pansexuality, for anyone not in the know, is someone who is: “not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity”.

Solo tells the story of a young Han Solo and friends, including Calrissian who is beautifully played by the overly talented Donald Glover. In the film, which seems to centre around a big space heist, Lando’s sexual preferences ― possibly including men, women and droids ― are definitely the subject of some lines of dialogue. His banter with Han Solo is definitely seen as being flirtatious in the film, for example.

However, despite the screenwriter’s best intentions, all of Lando’s pansexuality is played out in subtext in Solo.

“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality,” Kasdan continued. “I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity… sort of the spectrum of sexuality, that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”

Star Wars has a weird history with LGBTQI+ representation. The films don’t actually have any explicit representation on screen, despite having canonical books absolutely littered with queer characters. Despite JJ Abrams saying that the new films will “include gay characters”, we’re yet to actually see this happen.

And while it’s definitely fun to know that Lando is intended to be a queer character, it’s once again not quite enough if there’s no on-screen representation of that queerness.

We keep seeing this, over and over again, with big blockbuster franchises attempting to be inclusive, but backing away from actually committing to it, such as the recent example of Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s apparently “canonical” queer romance being removed from the next Fantastic Beasts film.

So, while we can claim this as an extremely small victory for queer representation in film, it does seem like another example of how slowly we are crawling to the actual end point of seeing Lando Calrissian making out with some hot alien dudes.