Billy Dee Williams saga gets even more bizarre as Star Wars actor claims it was ‘mistake’ to make his character pansexual
![Billy Dee Williams not gender fluid](https://www.thepinknews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GettyImages-958156428.jpg?w=792&h=416&crop=1)
Actor Billy Dee Williams arrives at the premiere of Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm’s ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
The latest plot twist during the Bill Dee Williams odyssey? The Star Wars actor saying it was a “mistake” for Lando Calrissian to be pansexual in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The surreal saga was a two-part act: After appearing to come out as gender-fluid last week, he has since clarified this was not the case.
But the third act? The 82-year-old stated that his character’s sexuality was the reason for the film’s feeble financial haul.
Billy Dee Williams: Solo went for ‘topical’ in making Lando pansexual.
The box office pull of the Ron Howard-directed film was less than a third of what Rouge One made two years prior.
But Williams was left “perplexed”, according to the Rolling Stone, by a new detail added to his character, Lando, him being pan.
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American actors Billy Dee Williams, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill on the set of Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back directed by Irvin Kershner. (Photo by Lucasfilm/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
“I think that’s the reason they didn’t have the success they could have had,” Williams told the Rolling Stone in an interview published last week.
“Because they were going for something that was topical, instead of an adventure that’s far beyond those questions.”
“If you’re talking about this huge, incredible story, why lock yourself into this tiny moment between a character like Lando and his robot friend?”
‘How can you not be pansexual in space?’, says Donald Glover.
The franchise expander saw Williams’ character be played by Donald Glover. In it, writer Jonathan Kasdan re-imagined Lando as pan.
“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s [portrayal of Lando’s] sexuality,” said Kasdan.
“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,” he added, referring to a scene seen in the movie’s trailer where Lando calls his droid L3 “baby.”
“He doesn’t make any hard and fast rules. I think it’s fun,” Kasdan said. “I don’t know where it will go.”
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Donald Glover is Lando Calrissian in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY. (Lucasfilm)
While some writers and directors in the cinematic world tend to have a revisionist approach to sexuality – months or years after releasing seeking to clarify a character was not heterosexual – many Star Wars fans welcomed the pan representation Lando provided.
In an interview with SiriusXM, Glover said: “Yea, how can you not be pansexual in space?
“There are so many things to have sex with. I’m serious.
“I didn’t think that was that weird. He’s coming on to everybody.”
Points were made.