If there’s one actor who’s gotten his fair share of fandom ire for a choice his character made, it’s Billy Dee Williams for Lando Calrissian’s choices on Bespin. We’re speaking of course of the memorable scenes in “Star Wars: Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back” where Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City, seemingly betrays his old friend, Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
The ol smoothy Lando gives up Han, Leia, and Chewie to the Empire, to save his mining colony from whatever fate Darth Vader and co had in mind. Which of course apparently has not gone over well with generations of “Star Wars” fans.
“Look, think about the whole situation. You’re up against a pretty formidable character in Darth Vader. And then there’s, of course, Boba Fett,” Williams told the “Dagobah Dispatch” podcast. “And these people were invading my space and I had to bargain with them. But the bargain at least prevented the complete demise of Han Solo and his friends. But I had to hold on to my whole situation.”
Sure, that makes sense. But apparently some fans took it a bit too far.
“When I would pick my daughter up from school, the kids would run up to me and say, ‘You betrayed Han Solo!’” Williams said. “I’d go on an airplane and the airplane stewards would say, ‘You betrayed Han Solo!’ I got that for a lot of years.”
“So I found myself explaining all this stuff to a point where I finally said to people, ‘Look, I’m tired of explaining all of this,’” Williams continued. “I said, ‘Did anybody die? Nobody died!’ I think that was a clear indication that Lando was trying to figure something out and he was trying to figure out primarily how to hold onto his situation without the complete demise of his friend.”
In “Episode VI- Return of the Jedi,” Lando helps Leia rescue Han, and becomes a General in the Rebellion. So, no hard feelings? And of course, Williams reprised the role in “Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker.”
Also, Donald Glover and his brother Stephen Glover are still developing a Lando spinoff film for Lucasfilm.
