Lando Calrissian is Han Solo's best friend, and a gambler, businessman, and scoundrel, who was the Baron Administrator of Cloud City on the planet of Bespin after he took over the city from the city's former Baron Administrator. He is one of the secondary protagonists in the original trilogy of the Star Wars universe, the tritagonist in Solo, and a supporting character in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Background[]
Personality[]
Lando is both a gambler and businessman, crook, and hero. Han referred to him as a card player, gambler, and scoundrel, this is in part reflected by his adventurous, risk-taking, and (seemingly) shallow nature. He is known for being a classy, dapper gentleman, with a sense of humor, fine fashion taste and more culture than the typical smugglers and pirates seen in some of his haunts. Despite his proficiency with weapons, Lando much preferred to use a con or trick to deceive an adversary rather than fight them.
Lando purposefully disguised his past, leaving it a mystery. He enjoyed being in charge almost as much as he liked creating profit in areas that others shunned. Lando could be talkative, though according to Han Solo, he is one of the biggest liars in the galaxy.
For all his love of adventure, Lando disliked complications and is fond of the "easy life". However, his adventurous, debonair exterior was augmented by his deep sense of loyalty. Lando does not like weapons in general and during his gambling career, usually eschewed all but a small stingbeam. Although he often dealt with criminals and others of questionable legality, Lando had no tolerance for bounty hunters and despised them in general, when possible. He cared greatly about his fashion sense.
Despite his status as a gambler and smuggler at the time, Lando is also selfless.
In his youth, Lando enjoyed playing Sabacc and Han described him as having been a scoundrel. However, after losing the Millennium Falcon, Lando sought to turn into a respectable businessman and he turned Cloud City into a mostly-legitimate enterprise. He is protective of his people to the point that he (reluctantly) betrayed Han and the Rebels to save Cloud City from the wrath of the Galactic Empire, for whom Lando had no love for. However, he turned against the Empire, in order to give his citizens a chance to escape and to save Han. Although Han had felt betrayed by Lando's actions, the two reconciled after Han was rescued from Tatooine, and shared a warm embrace during the victory celebration on Endor.
Film Appearances[]
The Empire Strikes Back[]
Lando first appears in as the administrator of Cloud City, concerned primarily with keeping the Galactic Civil War and the Empire out of his affairs. One day, Darth Vader arrives and blackmails Lando to betray his old friend Han Solo over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett by threatening to take over the city with leaving a garrison of his elite 501st Legion there if Lando refused; under the orders of the Emperor. Unwilling to leave the city in the hands of the Empire, Lando reluctantly does so, but his conscience gets the better of him when Vader seemingly goes back on his word and takes Leia Organa and Chewbacca as prisoners (however, it is actually the Emperor who goes back on his word, and Vader is reluctantly following orders). In the ensuing evacuation of Cloud City, he helps Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO escape. He then assists Leia in rescuing the maimed Luke Skywalker from the underside of Cloud City. Afterwards, he joins the Rebel Alliance and promises Leia he will find Han before he and Chewie take off from the Alliance Navy in the Millennium Falcon to begin their search for Boba Fett.
Return of the Jedi[]
Lando later goes undercover as one of Jabba's skiff guards to help Luke rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. He is able to remain undiscovered during his tenure as one of Jabba's men, only lowering his mouth guard quietly as he watches Chewie being taken away to be placed in the dungeon by Jabba's Gamorrean Guards. When Leia is discovered later that night by Jabba after freeing Han from his carbonite slab, Lando is one of the guards who bring her before Jabba before she is stripped of her Boushh disguise and placed in her slave girl outfit as Jabba's new personal slave girl. When Luke is dropped into the Rancor pit, Lando is one of the guards who pull Jabba's throne forward for him to watch the carnage, assuring a worried Leia that Luke would be fine, then slips off to grab Luke when Jabba demands they be brought before him after Luke killed the rancor. During a heated battle with Jabba's henchmen, Lando unmasks himself and participates in the action. Near the end of the fighting, Han saves Lando from being devoured by a sarlacc as, despite Han still recovering from hibernation sickness, he is able to shoot and wound the sarlacc in the tentacle it had grabbed Lando with, forcing it to let go as it bellows in pain, allowing Han and Chewbacca to pull him back onto the skiff; in return, Lando helps Han and his friends destroy Jabba's sail barge. For his heroics, along with his success later on in the Battle of Tanaab, he is made a general in the Rebel Alliance. He then takes the pilot chair in the Millennium Falcon, which was originally his, and leads the attack on the second Death Star within the famed cruiser with his co-pilot Nien Nunb and several fellow Rebels handling the other functions on the ship, such as the quad laser cannons on the top and bottom of the ship and other systems, acting under the callsign "Gold Leader" as he leads the fighters while Admiral Ackbar leads the rest of the Alliance Navy from his flagship, the MC80A Star Cruiser Home One.
Initially, the plan was to have a strike team led by Han land on the forest moon of Endor to destroy the shield generator protecting the second Death Star, while Ackbar had the Alliance Navy set up a perimeter around the second Death Star while Lando and the fighters flew into the superstructure and took out the main reactor. With the main reactor destroyed, the second Death Star would soon follow, killing the Emperor while he was aboard and decapitating the Empire with the loss of their leader. However, when the fleet arrives, Nien tells Lando that he can't get a reading on the condition of the the second Death Star's shield and realizes their sensors are being jammed. Lando soon realizes they've been lured into a trap and orders the fighters to break off, before they find themselves facing the Imperial Navy led by the flagship, the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor, under Admiral Firmus Piett, and Lando orders the fighters to keep the TIE fighters and TIE interceptors away from the larger Alliance ships, but soon becomes curious as to why the Executor and the Imperial-class Star Destroyers are not engaging them. He soon learns why when the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Liberty is destroyed, startling him, Nien, and their crewmates on the Falcon, and sees what caused it: The superlaser of the second Death Star.
- “That blast came from the Death Star...That thing's operational!”
- ―Lando
Realizing the Emperor has lured them into a trap to wipe out the Rebellion once and for all, Lando contacts Ackbar, who prepares to order a retreat, but when Lando protests that if the Alliance retreats now, they won't get another chance to destroy the second Death Star while the Emperor is on board, Ackbar reminds him that none of the Rebel ships, not even the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, have shields that could protect them from the high power the superlaser packs. Lando begs for Ackbar to stay and fight, trusting Han will destroy the shield generator, but they must give him more time. To that end, Lando orders the Alliance Navy to engage the Imperial Navy in point-blank ship-to-ship combat, gambling that the second Death Star's crew won't fire the superlaser at the Rebel fleet under risk of hitting a friendly Imperial vessel in the process, and might even take a few of the Imperial Star Destroyers with them if they go down fighting.
Thankfully, word soon comes in that Han has destroyed the shield generator, and Ackbar gives the order for the attack on the main reactor. Lando takes Wedge and several fighters with him into the second Death Star, but then has the two A-wings and Y-wing with him split off to head back to the surface in the hopes of luring some of the TIEs on their tail with them. With only two TIE interceptors pursuing the Falcon and Wedge's X-wing into the main reactor, Lando has Wedge attack the main reactor's north power regulator while he takes out the top of the core itself. The damage triggers a massive explosion that dooms the second Death Star, and while the TIE Interceptors are destroyed while trying to still chase the Falcon, Lando is able to fly the ship out of the battle station just in time, cheering with Nien as they head back to the Alliance Navy as they retreat to the forest moon, leaving the second Death Star to be destroyed, sounding the death knell for the Empire.
With the second Death Star destroyed, along with the Emperor, Darth Vader, and the Executor, the Empire was finished, and Lando reunites with Han, Leia, Luke, Chewie, C-3PO, and R2-D2 on Endor to celebrate the Rebellion's victory in Bright Tree Village with the Ewoks.
Solo[]
Lando is a major character in this movie.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker[]
Lando appears in the final installment of the Star Wars saga, helping Rey to find the Sith wayfinder that will lead to Exegol, and later he joins the rest of the Resistance in their battle against the Sith Eternal's fleet, the Final Order. At the end of the movie, he offers to help Jannah find her family.
Television Appearances[]
Star Wars Rebels[]
Lando appears in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Idiot's Array", where Zeb loses Chopper to him betting on a game of Sabaac, forcing the Ghost crew to assist him with a dangerous smuggling run to get their droid back. However, during the smuggling run Lando trades Hera to crime lord Azmorigan in exchange for a puffer pig, which can detect precious minerals for mining purposes, leaving Hera to escape in an escape pod. Humiliated, Azmorigan and his henchmen intercept the rebels on Lothal to take revenge. The crew successfully drive the gangsters away. The rebels part ways with Lando, though not before Chopper steals the fuel to Lando's ship, which the smuggler concedes as payment for their help.
Attractions[]
Lando is used as a promotional character for Star Wars Weekends in Walt Disney World. He is also seen during the Star Wars Weekends Parade.
Video games[]
Star Wars: Force Arena[]
Lando Calrissian is a playable character in Star Wars: Force Arena as a Legendary squad leader card.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Billy Dee Williams, Lando's actor, expressed interest in reprising his role of Lando in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but he did not appear in the film. He does reprise his role of Lando in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last installment of the sequel trilogy.
External links[]
Lando Calrissian on Wookieepedia
Lando Calrissian on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
