Episode 95: Star Wars - Lando

Our buddy Rocom also has a baby Yoda pins Now he has one baby Yoda with the frog and snack in his mouth, and then he has the of course Boba fete where he's a boba like contained her. Did I tell you about my Etsy thing? How Like? I try to order it and I don't even think that it existed. I don't think that doll existed, like that was the only place you could get him. So I tried to order one on Etsy back on December and I never got it, and the person was like, oh,

I sent my brother at the de sent it. I'm like no, how could you break my He was like, oh, do you just want to refund? I was like no, I would like I would like the baby, Yoda, thank you, I would like the child and he was like, oh um, and then I knew. I was like, you didn't even have probably made one. They're actually really hard to make, uh, Tino? Maybe I maybe I literally told this story last week. I can't remember. I have lost track of time. We are both, we are both in a day's writing, um

if he. We are joined today by one of our good friends. He's the author of Why We Love Star Wars. It's Ken Napsock. Hey. I am so thrilled to be here with you both, but also jealous of that shirt. I have another child shirt to I could it could fit over my head. That's about it. But I'll wear it. I'll well did you see I cut the arms out because I also could not fit. But you love Star Wars so much you wrote an entire book about it.

I did. Yeah, It's it's a it's a lifelong existence and I had the chance to write about it thanks to Mango Publishing, and and put my heart and soul in it, which is to me how I approached Star Wars heart and soul first, mind and analytical stuff later, heart and stuff, heart first, you and all of our friends that are Superstar Wars heads are always like very You're like who I think a Jedi would be, Like, You're just very sweet and you listen to everyone's opinions,

and like, I feel like that is probably how we should all remember Star Wars. You and m A five, Ace Cabrera, even Mark ellis like those people who just like really love something so they just you know, they can have critical conversations about it but still have respect. I guess that's the word I'm looking. Yeah, we me Justice Scrimpton on Jennifer and I've been doing Fourth Center for five years under that kind of approach. Yeah, nothing about Star Wars is ever going to be perfect, Nothing

is ever going to be the way you wanted. Celebrate what you love, engage with the story presented, and just also remember it's a silly space story, but not that doesn't also mean it doesn't mean the world to you, and you can move around the galaxy as as you want and have fun, have fun. Otherwise, why would I be here? Why would I write a book? If I'm like that's how people feel when I make fun of Goku. Yeah, I gets so triggered by it. I'm like he's tattooed on my body. I can make fun of my wife,

you know, Luke to be honest, Lucas Jesus. Yeah, yeah, see you got it. That makes Yoda um holy spirit. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. I'm like, who is Yoda? Then? Who's Jus? Yeah, Judas would be. It's not Dark Earth, I guess, Oh yeah, who who turns? No one really turns. Yeah, there's we need that. It's a good Star Wars story. Jedi. I mean there's been jediut of turn, but like in the big screen, I want this now. Get right. We normally start our podcast

with what we're geeking out about. We normally do. I think we'll let our guests go first. I was gonna go, and I was like, no, that's rude. We should let our guests go first. What are you seeking out about? Kid? Well, yeah, here we got A'm gonna sound really old. The Graham of Beer has shown up lately. You mentioned his name.

He's kind of a big jerk. Mark Ellis threatened me, challenge me, challenge me as the word, but I used threatened that I could not go do comedy with him until I completed watching the History of the Eagles documentary and I'm not like a huge Eagles fan, but I'm a rock fan and old rock DJ. And I was like, yeah, I've always been and he's like, you must. So I started watching it. And even though I don't love this band and and and you know, I just it's four

hours of drama. It's four hours of Twitter drama in the history of the band, and that just I love watching music documentaries. So the next night I was watching Echo in the Canyon, the Jacobilan Laura Canyon music scene. I watched another Lennon Yo go on one and it's just I'm right now. So it's been a few years, but I'm in a music doc and I don't have to love the band or be invested. At the end of it, you're invested. Are you going to make it

to Fleetwood? Mac? You know? I mean that's I think ste everyone's screwing everyone in the studio and they're writing songs about it. I make Fleetwood with his tongue out drama. Yeah, I bring this up a ton. But um Deef mccagan's autobiog autobiogra Griffy There We Go on Audible is actually really good. Worth it if you have an audible credit worth it um because he talks about you know them. It's also wild that they just like Craigslist didn't exist

back then. But I think they were looking for a drug like they were looking he was he's a basis, but they were looking to put this band to They're like on the Classified or something, and they like they got together at canters Um and they had their girlfriends there and they had no money and they barely knew

how to play. And I'm like, wow, I can't imagine just moving to Hollywood and barely knowing how to play and they're just kind of like figuring it out and then being one of the biggest bands of all times. But I love stories like that, and that's what I love those stocks. I love passing that that Delhi and Laurel Canyon, and that's where like Mick Fleetwood was looking for a guitar. Someone's like, hey, do you know Lindsey bugging m is like, I love that we live in

that city where you can find that little little pocket. Also, they just did not have like they had nothing to eat. It's just crazy listening to it to be like they would have like one sandwich to have like throughout the whole day, I'm like, how your blood sugar not crashing? Just doing coke and like, I don't know smash cut to are are where we started episode when Danny was talking about eating sugar sandwiches while working at the ice house. Is that what I said? No? No, I forgot what

you had? Struggle meal. Yeah. It was like tuna in a can. I would like section it off. I would eat half in the morning, half, like I was poor. Can we open up a business called Struggle Meal. I'll hook it up, you know. Look you'll get a hot link with with a piece of bread. Look, that's still a classic. I'll hit that up in regular das. I'll do Tina's burritos or those excellent to Molly's. You're like, oh this, there's nothing Mexican about this, but I'm about

to put it. Yeah. There was this one guy bit king shout out to you in my discord who said that he had a thirty three cent, an eighty nine cent, and a like a dollar ten burrito in the discord and everyone was like, where'd you get it from? He was like, oh no. Some gas station people were like, oh no, your butt, Oh my gosh, but he report did to us UH this morning. He was like, my butt is full from the It's all right. Yeah, we

were all scared. Uh. The thing that I'm getting out about is something that you can tune into tonight, which is e Leak's Super Punch UH, presented by Twitch, that I'm the host of on Monday through Thursdays live on Twitch every night, uh, and then on Friday nights we take it to TBS where host j D, Kelly Nugent and Alex Korea hold it down and I'll be popping my head in and bugging them throughout. It's gonna be

a good time. UM. Hopefully by the time this is UH out, my hard work has paid off and you've already laughed on Monday show and you're coming back to Tuesday show excited. Uh. If not Twitch HQ, maybe on Fire. Either way, tune in. It's live on Twitch. It will definitely be on the front page. That'll be UM the effect time from eight till ten thirty Pacific time, which

means Eastern time is later than that. Nice. Yeah. I was like I can add three to all of these or just say later than that, and that's what I went with. What about you, Danny, What are you geeking out? I am geeking out about The Outsider, which is on HBO. It's a new show. I think it's about four weeks in now, and so glad that I saw people on Twitter talking about it, or else I would not have actually checked it out. Um. So it's based on a

Stephen King novel. Actually, Jason Bateman is in it and he directed I think multiple episodes, or at least the first episode. Ben Mendelsohn is in it. It's really creepy. It's like a murder happens or people keep getting murdered and they can't quite figure out who is doing it because the people that are doing it um have like alibis. It was like, how could they they were on the other side of the country, how could they have murdered it?

So it's like maybe, so when's impersonating them? Really wild and super creepy thriller, like just really well done. Definitely check it out. I kind of fella. I literally sat there and watched three hours worth of it when I was getting when I was catching up. So that's how good it is that I sat there. What I'm hearing it because I'm playing I'm playing video games and my girlfriend is it's worth checking now? I turned around every now and then it sounds great like fantasy action or

is it's scary. Look, you can survive it if he don't look at look the Wikipedia says horror, don't look at it. Thriller. It's it's a thriller. It definitely is spooky enough, like it catches me for me a horror. Heead like it gives me like that extra little bit of like the Boogeyman in the bedroom, Like it just has a pinch of that. That's good. But it's very it's like a procedural like it's you know, they're tracking down this case. So it's very true detective ish, which

is fascinating because it's on the same channel. Very true detective but where children are being murdered. If you're into that, well now I'm definitely gonna turn around. We'll be into You'll be into this anyways. It's it's great, it's great, riveting, riveting, riveting. Um. Today we are talking about a character again. We're breaking down Star Wars into little bits as we go so that we can actually digest little digestible days. Yeah, little

digestible tasty bits. So we're not regurgitating things you've read over and over, researched over and over. We're just talking about some interesting things that people don't talk about often and characters and set trap. But today we're talking about Lando. Yeah, today we are talking about Lando. Yeah, Lando Calrisian the coolest mofo in the galaxy. And my humble opinion, like everyone you know growing up, like we're like, han, he's cool. Like now Lando was cool because he's sold Colt forty

five and oh he's super smooth. Yeah, he is epitome of fashion. He set the trends. Capes had existed before, but then he shows up and it just becomes a thing. But now even in like Star Wars and capes Vader had one, Landoki comes in, but but he also, you know, Billy d just brings Billy Denis to everything he does. Yeah, they actually updated his uh out for just a tad in the last film. Um and he's now in Star Tours. Super excited about that. I don't know if yes, yes,

it's not a spoiler because it's already out. But yeah, I got him. I went to uh, I went to Disneyland and he popped up and I was like, well, that's so cool, that's awesome. That's not gonna yeah, yeah, I remember so oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Okay, I think it's going to take just a little little certain ing. But so I saw a Star Wars late life, you know, so I probably like I was an adult, but someone um on my old improv team Cherry spits, I was live tweeting it. This was early live tweeting too,

this is before it was InVogue. But I was live tweeting my first viewing. And so I think I can find like my very first thoughts when I first saw Lando, I like just ran into it, like when I was looking for my old live journal and I still can't. I think they deleted it. It was it's probably for a good reason, but I wanted there was a show where like I was going through my old blog post when I was young, and um, oh this site is bad. I love when you go back to your live journal past. Yeah,

that's always fun. Well, I wanted to talk about his appearance and Empire. That's yeah, that's good. Yeah, do that. That's when we first saw him. Yeah, so in writing the Empire strikes Back Lucas initially considered at Lando Casan was a clone from a planet of clones, which caused the clone wars mentioned in The New Hope. An earlier trailer for the film introduced him as Landau cal Rision,

So I guess they just didn't go with that. The idea that George had a set plan for his original trilogy is one of the most fun miss and Star Wars that is often lobbed at the sequel trilogy. Where's the plan? Where's the plan? George didn't care of his own plants. It just and and I think that's that. That's how writing and creativity should go, right, sketch it out in pencil, but to see where it takes you,

see where your ideas take you. So yeah, yeah, we kind of talked about that when they were working on the last episode we just covered was fashion, and it was so fascinating because they were like, we didn't even know if this would air, Like they didn't even know if it was going to be a movie when they

were done with it. So the fact that it ended up being what it is, it's kind of just I don't want to say out of luck because that sounds like it, but it's you know, it's kind of one of those things in the if I had come maybe ten years later, ten years before, who knows. It's like when you're eating a sugar sandwich and you don't know is going to be You just got to take that shot. So I I found it, and I will I'll read the the whole blog post in the swift. This is

Empire Strikes Back for the first Yeah. Yeah. This is by my buddy James Stevieck on January two thousand ten, so over over a decade ago. I don't know how many of you know my friend associate. If you Shakuda, if he waddy Way, he is a member of my comedy group and a hugely funny guy. Recently, he admitted to the team he has never ever seen the original Star Wars trilogy. I sprung into action and got him

Empire Strikes Back for Christmas. I know it seems blasphemous for me to start him on episode five rather than New Hope, but I really wanted him to start on the one, if not what I feel to be the best Star Wars of the original trilogy. Plus less we forget every single Star Wars movie opens with all the pertinent information the audience needs to know if is a good friend, despite the fact that we are utter opposites

in many ways. For example, I abhor Twitter and other trindy internet fads, while if he tweets post more to Facebook than anyone else I know. I stand by my stance that no one on this planet is interesting enough to warrant a constant Internet feed of their every unyielding thought. But every so often Twitter offers a unique window into people's minds while they are at their most honest. The following are if he's tweets upon watching Empire for the first time and it's O, Lando, I don't trust you,

and then damn you Lando. Yeah, well then there's also don't tell them anythings? Solo are two? Your loud ass alerted? Boba Fett? Can someone put three C three P O on mute chro s his arm got cut off? What happened to Luke's father? No, No, not true, that's impossible. No, No, I think I was leaning into that last one. It's

pretty common knowledge that that invader, that vader is Luke's father. Um, but yeah, so that's uh, that's a that's a brave choice to start you there, but it worked up, Yeah, yeah, worked out. Yeah, he was. He was firm on his belief that that's the better one that I like to that you start with, don't trust him, because that is kind of this big thing. I'm Billy de actually talked about a Star Wars celebration about the idea of you know, don't trust Landa. But really he's like, I'm surviving. And

that's to me what I love about Lando as a character. Yeah, because he is, he is surviving in this galaxy and he doesn't He's like, why should I trust haunt? Yeah exactly, and what do for me in mine? And what we were talking about on the Planets episode is like this his his like whole ship is manufacturing like weapons. So I mean, not only is his like life at risk,

but also the his economy. You know, if he was to break up that relationship with the Empire, then then his that's not only his life he's ruining, He's ruining the life of the whole planet. He's got a lot of responsibilities on the shoulder, and his old buddy shows up. Hey man, I'm in trouble. Yeah I know, and look what you've done. He brought this to my doorstep. Yeah,

a whole and you stole my ship. When asked what made Lando so popular originally, Billy D. Williams responded, I think he's an interesting, fund swashbuckling individual with a lot of charm. He's like the old fashioned swashbuckling characters in the old films, Errol Flynn, and he's my personality. But apparently that didn't stop fans from lashing out at Lando for betraying Han. He said, quote, they don't cuss me out anymore for betraying Han. That's over now. I don't

have little ten year old boys threatening my life. Wow, that's the real life Internet. Well, that's the Internet in real life though. And when I do these conventions, I run into people who were little kids when they first saw it, and they're bringing their kids. That is really sweet. Yeah, yeah, I've never directly thought of in that way of like, yeah,

he is. You know, Lucas was writing this serial adventure nineteen thirties type of movie with with New Hope and Empire comes along, and now we actually get kind of the debonair little wispy mustache like uh like uh, you know Douglas Fairbanks back in the day and that's that's that's that's actually real fascinating take from Billy D as as he would know. And one of the things that White Star Wars works so well back then is like you know, Princess latt Is, Carrie Fisher and and and

it is. It's almost like pro wrestling where you find the character that's just yourself amplified and yeah, that's the strength is Billy D is Billy D. But he is a good actor. So it's translates so well on the screen.

Here's a cool bit I want to talk about. So, the introduction of black men and women as leaders of their own stories cemented black exploitations popularity, and despite the genre's harmful themes such as physical and sexual abuse, hyper sexuality, linking blackness and inter city life to crime and drug use, and hyper masculinity, the genre, which created legendary films like Shaft, Coffee, Cleopatrick Jones, and super Fly, provided black actors and black

audience as a way to Crew eight and consumed story starring black characters that would gain mainstream appeal. Several big names and entertainment participated in the genres development, like Sydney Portier, who started two sequels in the heat of the Night

that would serve as a precursor to black exploitation. They called me Mr uh Mr Tibbs and the organization and you know this is also if if you're interested in this lane at all, Dolomite is my name kind of tackles that too, because it is like, this was a time where, yeah, you didn't have, you know, that much representation. I mean, if you think we have it bad now, it was even worse than and this and yeah, it's

kind of, uh, it's kind of cool that. Like, so now, by nineteen seventeen, Billy D. Williams was already a Hollywood nine nineteen seventeen, back before the pictures, you know, when

it was silent. But yeah, by nineteen seventy two, Billy D. Williams was already a Hollywood star and a chief arbiter of cool for his roles in Brian Song and Lady Sings the Blues and it kind of sebmented him as a huge talent and uh, but he also started like black exploitation films like The Final come Down Hit and The Take, And even then, Williams still played like a compassionate hero looking for justice and so like to step out of that and to be in like a movie

like Star Wars is such a big move because I think we talked about this. Actually this might have been a subject I talked about on who Shot You talk about movies too much? Uh, but like the idea of a quote unquote black film, and like you and and like for the longest uh you know, people say, oh, that's a black film, they don't have to see it.

And the reason this actually came up was for a film called Tales from the Hood, which like even the name might suggest that it's something different, but like it's actually a poignant uh anthology, horror that actually deals with stuff still prevalent today. It was police brutality, it was you know, racist politicians because uh, Tales from the Hood came out like a year after Jeff's Sessions almost became president. Uh if you and if you don't remember that, and

then also just uh black drug use. Uh, it's just all these things that affect in gang violence. And at the end of uh, so but it's we were kind of blown away because as a kid always was a horror movie and then like looking at it as an adult and being able to take in those themes. It blew me away that not more people saw it because it would be like a Jordan Peel esque level movie,

but because it was kind of categorized that way. And to take it back to the point I was trying to make is to step out of that lane and to do something that's you know, quote unquote mass appealing like Star Wars is a huge step for a black actor. I mean you go back and look at New Hope, you look at the briefing room scene, and you're like, that's a that's a see a white um and you know, growing up, I just you know, actually you don't think of it now. We do now now, which is good.

But yeah, so so just on that surface level, the ability there. But I like what you said about what he wasn't just there. He had this power, this agency had things. He was he was a scene stealer. Like literally, I grew up my mother, My mother and father still married forty six years to celebrate him, the very conservative family.

But I grew up my mother and a thing for Lando, So I grew up with the image if she was like, oh that's a that's a pretty man here in the background while I'm watching the tape again, don't want to watch the snow was like yeah, I get to get into the cloud City scene. It's like funny that he in this world, in this galaxy is a smuggler, not a male model. He could be. Um, well, let's talk about like Lando who for people that don't know him, we've kind of like glossed over that, but like what exactly?

So he is a smuggler, um, but he does. He has a lot of traits. He's a jack of all trades. He's a gambler, uh, card player. Uh yeah, So can you tell us a little bit more about where he comes from and what he does? Sure, born on the planet SoCoRo. That never really factors and it almost got

mentioned in Bryce the Skywalker, but um, he does. He What I love about Land of the character is he does transition from his youth gambling criminal underworld, but he also he kind of he's not He's not what I would call a criminal in Star Wars that you see in the movie Solo Han Solo wants part of that. Lando's kind of above that. He does things about that. But he's always been in business man. He's always been

about himself because he has to be about himself. I think he looks around the galaxy and goes, no one else is going to help me. I gotta help myself. He's definitely he's not just a ladies man. He's a Aliens man. He is a whatever you know, Star Wars alien. He's all around there, droid maybe possibly, we don't know, you know, three days, So that's finitely part of his character.

He uses it to his advantage of some great stuff in the Lando comic of five issue run came a couple of years ago, where he is getting getting using his sex appeal to get his way with some imperial officers to to to to get himself some space. So he's always adjusting, he's always in the fly, but it is it comes with heart. I think that's that leads

to a transition towards the end. There's a great a little one off story and an anthology series called from a certain point of view where he's kind of watching the news so to speak, about the blow the structure of the Desk Star and he sees the falcon and he's like, there's only one person that could fly like that, not just the ship, but like that, And he's like, what would make Han do something so outside of himself and it awakens something in him too that eventually comes

into play. So I like like that Lando is always evolving. And then even in Rise of Skywalker, part of the themes of that movie are not being held to any category you think you're in or your past, um that you can make the choices to go for and you still have You're still viable to the story. Now where do we meet Lando. He's kind of given up, he's kind of become a hermit and he's like, I'm too old, my flying days are done. And his part of his journey is like, no, you still have this great value.

And so he comes to that realization there. And I love that Lando is always kind of changing, but by still being Lando all the way through, it's pretty it's pretty cool, it's pretty powerful. Do we know anything about his family. We don't know much. We do know. There's a book called Last Shot by Daniel jose Older. It's

very good. It's deals with Han and Lando kind of in three different parts of their lives, young, middle, and and towards a little bit after a force awakens era or before a force an excuse me um, and he does finally settle down and he finds I think it's a Twilight character, but I don't know if that's his final ever. Yeah, everybody into them, Thank you, thank you to in return the Jedi. Well, I was gonna say, uh in the Mandalorian yes to tell you Tennis character right, yeah, yeah,

it's uh God, that's who I need. Characters have become that for Star Wars fans. But it's interesting. Then you got on the mail side bib for Tuna. That is appealing to Um, we've made fun of We did an entire episode with Joseph scrimshot Yoda and it was really funny because I was like, Yota, cute, Yattle, No, not so much. We'll see what the child grows up. We don't haven't. We haven't seen. He's not going to grow up.

We'll be we'll all be dead by then. Um, we have to take a really quick break that we're gonna hop back into more Lando right after this. Hey everybody, and welcome back to Ardifficent. We're talking Solo. Danny's sitting across from me, and are not. We're talking Lando. Oh my gosh, I've met Lando. We're talking Lando. Danny's sitting across from me. And well, it's because we're going to talk about so yeah, so we're talking solo about we're

talking about Lando, and I guess it's kidnapsack. Yeah. So do you remember when do you all remember when Donald Glover was announced? I was there something that launched that before, like they were speculator. Yeah, there was like early speculation of Donald before it was confirmed. And I forget what set that off. I'm trying to think too. It might I think he was kind of known as a fan of it in a way. His work on community, I'm trying to give community to cause players something. I don't know.

It just seemed when rumors of a Young Han solo movie came about, it was like, well, great, right, Donald Glover is gonna play Lando, right, and it just kind of the universe and the universe manifested it and it was great news. It just seemed so perfect, how fascinating. There's an I g N YouTube video from when they start when of the it came out last Yeah, well this was why Donald Glover is a good pick for

Lando cow crazy and so clearly he was on people's minds. Um, yeah, but if he do you remember it was a pretty good response from everyone him being cast. Yeah, oh yeah, no, no, people were happy because I think it was one of that It was that weird thing nerds do where like

something they they like they leaked it. It was enough time for people to like get excited and be like, yeah, we think, we think that's going to happen, and then they feel right when it's confirmed, so they're like yeah, yeah, yeah,

that's the one. That's also like, I think the thing with Lando is like, you know, Lando was like the coolest character of the time, and like this was back when it was announced, Donald was on fire and he was like the coolest black actor at the time, so it was just like, yeah, this is the equivalent of Billy D in the seventies. Let's go exactly and again

it's going to come out. Even though he did a great job of channeling Billy D or a younger Abilly D, he definitely brought his own sensibilities to it, and I think that's obviously what you need to do it. I think Alac did a great job as well. I'll fight on that hill for for a long time, but his performances so but I think Donald Glover just brought that same energy where it's him, it's him, but it's a character, and so you're you're you're invested in him as well.

There's actually a picture of Glover fixing the cape of his Lando Action figure when he was little. He said, quote, I had a doll that I slept with, the only black doll in the store that my mom bought for me, and my dad bought me Lando. Glover says, Oh, that's that's very true. It was probably the only one of the only black action figures that was available to kids at that time. Yeah, I mean running down the listen, Yeah, absolutely. Um, so refresh people about how him and Han become a thing. Oh,

it's a thing. It's a thing. So in Solo, they need a ship. They need the fastest ship in the galaxy. Kira's uh, you know, we don't know if how well she knows Lando. She makes some jokes. She seems to know him pretty well. Uh, and he's retired. So they meet at the bar there. Uh and and the which I love Bradford young shot. That's so beautifully I I think Solo's best looking of New Star Wars films to me, just in terms of lived in kind of world. And so they meet there and he's he's done, he's out,

But Tobias Peckett is there. What a Harlson's character and Tobias Beckett killed a bounty hunter or a sing that Landa's bronzis always in. That kind of starts the adventure. That's where they kind of meet up now in Cannon has established. Yeah, they had his outfit pretty much the same, but some slight tweaks to it. Donald actually said as far as dressing as Landol, he said, Lando is always the best dress person on that set. And I don't say that lightly. There's a lot of cool costumes and

a lot of cool clothing. Lando's clothes, That's what I like. I was secretly super happy. I want to I'm sure you got to keep a bunch of it. His clothing, his clothing is another slice of life. He takes pride in the clothing and makes things easier. When people see you and your debonair, they tend to want to give you stuff easier. That is so true. If he do you notice that when I, Oh, I don't know if

your girlfriend can also deals with this. But if I go into nordstrooms and I look like ship, nobody wants to talk to me if I take thirty minutes to put on my makeup, all of a sudden, I'm the richest person in that store. So funny, and that's a pretty woman, huge big yeah. Absolutely, maybe that's the trick. If you want to just go shopping and be left alone,

you gotta go. Somebody recognized me at the Burbank Mall and I looked like ship I think, I tweeted, like, if you see me in like, my face looks like ass and it's just like all red and whatnot and splotchy, just like, you know, let's pretend we don't see each other. Um, anyways, I'm sure it was okay, I don't even on my worst day, like a whole and it's fine. Um, I guess what because Billy do well. So then, like we said, Billy Do Williams came back thirties six years later Yeah

roughly right, yeah, thirty six years later a blur. But yeah, um, why do you think people have resonated with this character for decades on end? I think for a lot of different reasons, some of the cultural reasons we've talked about and him being you know, the only black action figure in the eighties Yeah, that's pretty powerful for a lot of people, but also something like me, I you know,

that's I'm this white kid in the suburbs. But I loved Orlando because he expanded the galaxy and the second I think he's one of the most Yoda the puppet. Literally you decided Lucas going, let's face the second film around a puppet. We'll shoot it, we'll see how it goes. And then he brings in Billy Dee Williams. And to to continue the story, you have to expand the galaxy and have to feel so real. And I thought the

chemist him coming on here. I think the successive Empire has a lot to do with Billy d making it just work and changing what we think of sequels and new characters coming on and and it changed his heart. You fall in over the Big three. Now you got this guy and he made it work. So I think that that was part of it. And then you know when when when episode seven starts happening in the word officially came out, he wasn't going to be part of it. That that wasn't just a case of absence made the

heart grow fonder. Absence just kind of really stirred up a lot of passion for the character and well, why why would he not be there? And I I don't know why. An episode seven they could have they could have found a found a spot. I do agree with Ryan Johnson going there were spots in my movie I could have inserted him, but it would have been that, it would have been this cameo. And I I know it was tough for him. He's such a Star Wars fan.

Ryan Johnson's he bleeds it. I I one the ones who was like, yeah, he could have been where Mos was. He could have been in the casino. But then what then, what does he do? I want more than that. I want more than him turning a weakened at the camera, and I think unfortunately we had to wait, but the weight paid off because I really do love his contributions

to episode nine. God's so great. And now, like I said, he gets to live forever in Star Tours, the best best thing, you know, that's where we all want to end up, right, we just want to live in Star Tours. That's yeah, until you get older and you start get nauseated easier. It's it's the worst. I have to go sitting at the I can just do the Buzz Lightyear

game over and over, but I can't Doastro last year. Uh. And one last thing about Star Tours is I had a friend who was like, I know the perfect seat and uh to always be picked as the rebels by They're like, it's this seat, is this seat? It's not the cast members choose it. And in the back they always seem to go to the right and they typically because you have because that's the easiest one to see,

so it looks like it's always that one. But they typically, uh, if you will have like if you are mostly adults and we'll have a kid on another side, that's when you'll see it change because they typically try and make it a kid. But also remember it's a camera, so the bet the cameras still gonna be best for that section. But yeah, they pick in the back. They told me.

Because I was really complaint. I was like, what is the seat too, you know, because when you work there, you're like and they're like they're like, oh, we pick it,

and I was like why don't. Then it turned into like, why don't you ever pick me there because we have to pick kids, And I was like, all right, anyway, back to the Lando and yeah, yeah, and this is uh, this was this was solo kind of pushed the needle in a way because the dialogue and solo suggested that Lando is sexually interested in men women androids, including both Han and L three thirty seven, which if you don't remember, that was the thick droid. That droid was so thick.

Yeah you don't remember, I do? Who have voiced again, Phoebe waller Bridge, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was my that was my hot pastor was that droid? But yeah. When they when they were asked about the scene where L three jokes about Lando's flirtatiousness towards Han, Uh, Lawrence Casting said that her personality and maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't, which feels like, oh well, we'll let you all decide um. But then co writer Jonathan Caston confirmed

that Lando was panning sexual Staton. There is a fluidity to Donald and Billy we Billy Dee's portrayal to Lando's sexuality. 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 doesn't make a find any

hard fast rules. Like that tracks for me totally because there's like, if you remember from Dr Who Jack Harkness, who's by there's something about that like that is like the real like smuggler who is like not only good at like flirting with women, but also men, Like there is no one that this person can't charm and that and that is there. That's like super cool. Also it's great representation. Yeah, and it was super cool is that Billy d Williams, you know, came out as being gender fluid.

And I just think it's so such a great time for nerds and people that look up to these characters to be able to have these conversations and honestly just have it be the thing that if he and I talk about a lot with these sci fi with anything that's fictional, it's like, why can't it just why does it have to be stuck to our archaic you know, rules and things that we like. It just doesn't make sense.

It's kind of like my argument with Game of Thrones, where people are like, well, it's just more like why there's not a lot of people of color. They're like, it's just more his oric. I'm like, there's dragons, there's not historical times, a real historical And then furthermore, that is a we've went I I always have to go down this uh this tangent. That is a B S

excuse that is not true. Once again, check out the page Mythical Medieval POC that will show you paintings from medieval times featuring people of color, not just as slaves or servants, but in noble roles. Because that is true. There has been a clear white erasure in history. And educate yourself because the art proves it. Because the arts were selfies that they took back then. You know, they weren't just making it up. They were not pulling it

out of their butt. They're like, oh, we're just gonna make them black. No, it's they're seeing these people in as nobles in these times, and the erasure has led you to believe it, Like come on, now, well, are you telling me that my grandmother's painting of Jesus that one is the that what I was gonna say that people I feel the people that have been down with us for like years have to hear this constantly but our new new followers is always good for them to know.

But also and even when I look at like Grecian urns and they're like totally like I can't say what I want to say, they're totally banging each other and whatnot, they're just like more, you know. And so for me, the conversation that I see often on these forums is with these with these films and including with Rise of Skywalker and uh and The Last Jedi, is well, they're shoving it in our face or they're shoving it down our throats. And I'm like, no, that's actually just how

the world is. It's just we've been we've been really complicit slash like used to a certain type of media, a certain type of character that's heterosexual or whatever, this particular color. But that's actually just the rest of the world. And especially if they're in this sci fi there's no reason that they wouldn't have that it wouldn't be as diverse or even more diverse, to be honest, than our

view of the world. So it says it says a lot if if you hear the idea in John cast and did get some heat too, by the way, when he said that because a lot of we're like, well, you're saying it now, it's not in the movie. Unfortunately, there might be some real world reasons why the the The Kiss and Rise of Skywalker is easily edited out. That's uh, you know, probably for for markets, and it's not the answer we want to hear, but that's why,

you know, that's where're at right now. Also, I sometimes say the first steps sometimes a leaf leap, sometimes it's a shuffle, but hey, at least we've gotta step, you know. Then there's bigger conversations having that. But particularly with Lando, there was obviously going to be how dare you make my landou like a man? And I'm like, but I think you just said. If I said Lando is going to have sex with that four armed uh elephant alien or something that we're going to create the movie, you'd

be like, well, yeah, Lando gets around. But because we're like, hey, he might might like han, you're like, my bad, and it's like they come on. And plus you're in a crowded theater. Someone in that EAD's got a different view than you and a different experience. Welcome to the rest of the world. Yeah. Um, one one final thing I wanted to say about Solo about the film with Donald Glover joining it, he said, on the advice he received from Billy D Williams, he said, quote just be charming,

which was perfect. That's it. He said. It really made it super simplified with playing a character that's already established. That's true. Uh, there's a fear of overthinking and comparing yourself to be able to just go be charming, it's really helpful. Actually, I love to you mentioned that there's that shot that leaked out around that time of he at Donald Glover and Billy D Williams like having lunch, and I was like, there's the two coolest people in

the galaxy just sitting there chilling talking about Lando. Well, and I'm sure that Donald Glover never expected to be you know, same with how he's influenced the Spider Verse AND's like he never probably intended to and now he's changed the lives of so many people. Yeah, we have to take a really quick break and then we're gonna hot more into Lando Cows right after this. All right, all right, and welcome back to Nertive Ascent. Today we're talking Lando. I got Danny Fernandez across from me and

to my right, kidnapsock. How you doing, I'm doing great. This is fun. That's been a great set up, a great show. Good vibe, grape juice for me. I know you got you got the good vibes. And you know I can't let this episode in without talking about a t a T shirt. It's done in the style of a C d C. And your Lando pen land O pens. My friends at Black Serves Rebels, Steve and Alex and they put out these unlicensed but people at Lucasfilm love

them pens, so we're safe. Uh, And they put this one out around the time, so it's it's it's because it's a parody toy. It's called land Landino. Y oh my god. It sounds like he's in Greece or something. Um did you see. I don't know if you saw, but I tweeted I was watching I was watching the NFL. I was watching a football game and they have a little pin that looks just like Lando. I literally took a picture and I tweeted it. I'm like this straight up, I thought this was a Lando cow And I'm like,

that's so dope. They're just letting them wear whatever they want now. But I guess it's a it's an award. I'll have to find it because then I later, of course Mark Ellis was like, this is a blah blah blah award, but um, I'll show it to you and you'll be like exactly powers And anyways, Iffy, sorry, didn't mean to cut you off. Please continue with our Nando discussion. Yeah, so I think now is a good time to talk

about the future. Like I know, I know, you know, people are like, well, you know what it ended with Rise, that was the clothes. But we also have the obi Wan series. It's going to be a series, right, yeah, yeah, we want series coming out, so I think they're not done telling stories connected to it. But I think the trilo g as we know what has done in anything we see will probably be stories connected and probably further after, maybe even further before, who knows. But yeah, I think

there's a lot of ground to touch. I mean, like we set the planet that he's from, we don't even see or really hear that much of so I mean that alone would be interesting. There's a lot of room to go with the character in the past, you know, going forward. I'm sure Billy d would do it for the toil the end of his days. If you want to do a limited series, uh, you know, old man Lando,

I'm sure he'll over that. There's some I think some pointed stuff at the end with him in Janna and uh naomi Aki's character, and and and there's it's strongly and I think they were gonna go with that was his daughter. They decided not to. Might have been too much one bit more of story information in an already crowded film. I thought it was a pretty powerful point, a moment of just discovery. Um, this character who had been taken against her will to serve in an army,

uh and broke free of that. And she doesn't know herself often and here's Lando who's been spending a galaxy discovering who he is. I thought it was a pretty powerful moment. So you could go forward, but I think you'd go back. Like I mentioned, last shot by Daniel jose Older, it deals a lot with him. There's a couple of comics. There's a younger Lando comic based around Donald Glover his version of Landa that goes right up into solo, and there's one of five issue series. I

think there's a lot. I think him going around the galaxy with Luke Skywalker as he hinted at and rest a guy Walker. You tell me you wouldn't want to take an animated series voiced by Billy d Mark Mark Hamill. You know, Umo, A lot of people talk about the d aging technology. I don't know if you did it. Of course, there's a lot of a lot there and

young and and the idea of I don't know. It's tough to say what some of the performers, what the relationship is with the franchise right now after they're in it. It seems like right now boy Aga and Oscar as they can really they're like, we're good, We're good. For bed, thank you, We're good. H We'll see. But you know, Harrison Ford was like, let me out, and now he came back and came back in a great way. So

who knows. Donal Glover I don't know. I don't get the feeling either way that he hates or hates it or regrets it. I think he liked it, would love to do it again. I wonder if he would do like a Disney Plus series kind of like you were talking about, and just do a four four episode limited run. Yeah, yeah, Lando out and about in the galaxy and something. I mean that people would love. The Mandalorian is really good. I'm very biased, but it's really good. How much How

much money are they putting in that per episode? I don't know exactly millions it is, I'll tell you that. I'll tell you a secret. Fever did not get as much as he wanted. So in the second season, maybe he'll get what he wanted. What do you mean, like like he asked, they asked for a lot, They asked for the Game of Thrones type, and they were like, yeah, you're gonna get a lot, but we'll see. And so I think the first season because it's so successful, Yeah,

I think now he's playing with house money. Back in the day, like now everyone's talking about how television is, like what's what's the thing now? You know it was movies, but a lot of people are moving. Even the movies are now on on the streaming platforms and that's like what's being nominated. So back in the day, I would say, like, no, he should, They should have a Lando movie, which absolutely

they should. But I really think that he could do a series and that would crush, Like he's such an interesting performer right, Donald Glover, So imagine what he could do with this character for episodes, six episodes, it's all, it's all I need, give me eight ten, twenty two like the old days. But uh story you mentioned storytelling has changed and how we as an audience consume it. So the Kenobi series, which was It's still gonna happen and then all the stuff about dead, don't worry about

that stuff too much. It was gonna be a movie. It was gonna be this, and I'm glad. I I can't believe I'm saying it is a long time Star Wars fan. I'm glad it's gonna be a TV series not a movie because then less pressure on it. I can go to a movie and I don't have to go to a movie theater and hear people behind me going start we're stupid and I get into fights. I can just enjoy it home on my sweatpants, like most

of my life. So if they were to do that with Lando, you could really just explore the character, have fun, introduce some things, maybe really put some of those concepts of u uh Lando's dating life down on paper and put it on screen and really kind of do that be good we'll see I think a lot of it. Mandalorian has been a home run. Uh, we'll see what the other two, Cassian and and Canobi do and they'll be good. Wait when is Cassian coming out? I heard this m is finally of the release date. I think

we're looking at some point in one. I think Mando Mando Season two will be out before those um and you've got um you know, dig Aluna leading that one, and it's going to be great. I wanted to circle back and the pin that I was talking about is the Walter Payton Man of the Year, and you can't always Walt doesn't look like a land Open well uh yeah, no, absolutely, uh if he does that, Yeah, there's this. I mean, I grew up not funny, and I grew up in

the eighties me so old. But I would say in a weird way, Walter Payton and Billy d give off some of the same old vibes and just like cool, smooth and and someone you admired to Walt Walter Payton, who did pass away I mean on and off the field, well respected. So yeah, that's that's funny. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm still when I see them wearing it, when I see Drew Brees with it, I'm just gonna be like, no, that's that's exactly what it is. It's a Billy do Williamspen,

Billy Williams Fen. We all need just Billy d Williams Spence. And I'm glad he's got the second go around. I'm glad he got this second gust of Lando love. He deserves it. Iffie, how are you feeling. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling juiced up on some Lando energy. Might go look at pics of a droid tonight. Wow, it works, it works. I know I need to go rewatch Solo. It was solid, but yeah, they have the skins for it.

Was funny because in Battlefront, to the the skins for young Lando as Donald and Solo the actor, I was like, now, I'm gonna keep it Harrison Fort Yeah, yeah, I'll change it the glover, but I'm keeping Yeah. I love dude, the billy. He voiced him in Rebels, he voiced him in the in the game. He has a lot of pride and ownership in that character, as he should. But it's good to see, good to see, you know, the same with Anthony Daniels. Will see three po but he'll

he'll voice three po. If you called Anthony Niels right now, you can do with three pos voice for five bucks as he should. But I think we've gushed about him. Yeah, thank you so much, Ken, thank you for having me. Where can people find you? If you want to follow me, you can go to at ken nap soccer across all social media platforms. You got ken naps dot com. If you want to buy my book, Why We with Star Wars is audiobook versions available on Amazon as well the

version in German. Now I found out recently and I got some comedy date's coming up. I think we've in one with the aforementioned Mark Ellis in Las Vegas March six. So I'm saving up my quarters to play the Nickel slots. So follow me and we'll go on some of the adventures together. I am actually tonight. If you're listening to this in you're in l A and it's somewhat in the morning slash it's before seven pm Pacific time. I'm on a podcast with Mark Bernard in we're doing it live.

It's black Man Beyond and it is at Scum and Villany Cantina No Less Star Wars I don't know what we're talking about, but um, you can get tickets and you can go tonight unless this is currently night time and then it is happening currently right now. I'm also what sorry tater tots, oh really good tots. I have a side, uh funny story I'm gonna say really quickly, is that our friend Nick Ross was stayed with me. He's from Canada and the Federal Bar, which is a

bar here in l A. It's great. They have great tater tots as well. They have sweet potato tater tots, but they serve them with maple syrup. And so they set the tater tots down in front of him, and he has again a Canadian accent, and then they take this thing of maple syrup and they just dump it all over. And I was like, oh my gosh, I thought they did it because of him, like hey, welcome,

welcome to America. A. Anyways, it was really funny. Um. I just love that, I hope, and I wanted every restaurant to do that to him, just like put his steak down and then take out maple syrup and just pour it all over. If he where, can everyone catch

you? You You can catch me. You know, like I said, from now on weeknights on twitch check me out super Punch, but also if you wide away on Twitter and Instagram if ds on my own personal twitch, the discord is Discord dot g G Forward slash Salt Squad where we're keeping the convo going and bit King is even weird Burritos, but, like we always say, staying Marty