Star Wars: Lucasfilm President Clarifies Comments About Recasting Legacy Characters

Star Wars Celebration is heading into its fourth and final day, and the convention has featured a lot of excitement. Many big names from the franchise were in attendance, including Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, who teased a lot of upcoming content during a panel on Thursday. The producer also talked to Vanity Fair about Solo: A Star Wars Story and why recasting legacy characters doesn’t usually work. “Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that,” she told the outlet. However, she later clarified those comments and made it clear that nothing is off the table, and teased that Donald Glover could still be returning as Lando. 

“I never say never [with regard to recasting characters]. It’s certainly not something that we’re doing with any intention right now,” Kennedy explained to Total Film (via Star Wars News Net). “We’re still talking about Lando with Donald Glover, for instance, but I don’t think we would intentionally just look back at some of the characters like Luke and Leia and whatnot and decide arbitrarily to do a story. There would have to be a really strong reason why… There’s always a future for Solo!”

Solo director Ron Howard also appeared at Star Wars Celebration this weekend in promotion of the upcoming Light & Magic documentary, which is set to showcase the VFX achievements of Industrial Light & Magic. During a press conference, Howard opened up about the Solo love he’s heard from fans.

“As far that love for Solo, it’s incredibly gratifying and it means a lot to the cast. A great young cast that put their heart and soul into the movie. It means the world that the film resonates with Star Wars fans. That’s all anybody hopes for!” Howard shared. 

Solo was the first film that used LED screens and “Volume” technology from ILM, which Howard talked about at the con. 

“Returning with ILM is great,” Howard shared. “I have a lot of confidence in any relationship with ILM and also with special effects. It’s exciting to see some of the breakthrough ideas in technology were beginning to present themselves. They did start on Solo, that was fun to see, and apply and be a part of. Also, it was, for me, coming in when I did, everything was suddenly on a very tight schedule. I was beginning to approve pre-designed effects shots as finals…there was a lot of trust there.”

The latest Star Wars project, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is releasing new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays.