Over the past week, and even earlier today, the writer of Lando that was attached to the project back in December 2020 when the series was announced, Justin Simien, has spoken openly about not having an update of the series since it’s announcement. It now seems as if we have clarity on that situation.
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Jeff Sneider for Above the Line is exclusively reporting that Justin Simien has been off of the Lando series since last Summer when he decided to focus his efforts of Disney’s Haunted Mansion reboot flick which releases this week. Simien just earlier today told The Hollywood Reporter that Lucasfilm loved his Lando script, but that there’s been no development on the project since it’s announcement in 2020, with Simien adding that he believes he’s still attached to the Disney+ series, but that he didn’t really know.
The Above the Line report goes on to say that Lucasfilm were determined to continue development on the series while Simien focused his efforts on Haunted Mansion, and as part of moving forward with the development on the project, they reached out to the series lead, Donald Glover, who previously starred in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story as Lando Calrissian, and his brother and occasional writing partner, Stephen Glover, to take over writing duties and pen the series. The siblings have reportedly agreed to step aboard the series as writers with Lucasfilm reportedly excited about the arrival of the duo as writers and find their take on the series just as exciting.
Above the Line mentions that Lucasfilm, Disney and Glover camp have attempted to keep word of the Glover brothers taking over the project as writers tight lipped, but that the brothers signed on well before the Writers Guild of America strike and have not worked on the project since the WGA strike began in May. The outlet believes that Justin Simien’s recent comments was the writer-director toeing the company line and didn’t want to cause headlines before the release of Haunted Mansion this weekend.
The Glovers worked together as writers on the critically acclaimed FX series, Atlanta, which debuted in 2016 and wrapped up last year with its fourth and final season. Stephen Glover wrote eleven of the forty one episodes of Atlanta and wrote the screenplay for Guava Island, both of which Donald starred in. Donald is the more experienced writer of the siblings, creating Atlanta along with Amazon Prime Video series, Swarm. Donald Glover also wrote twenty three episodes of 30 Rock and wrote the upcoming Mr and Mrs. Smith series for Prime Video due to release in November which he also stars in.
Earlier this year, Donald Glover told GQ that he was being more precious with his time following the COVID-19 pandemic which made him realise that his time is valuable. Glover expanded on his comments revealing that he was only picking projects that did not feel like a waste of his time and if he got to work with people he enjoys working with. He signed off adding that Lando could possibly be one of these projects and that had spoken with the Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, who told IGN in April that the Lando series was definitely still happening.
Author of the exclusive report, Jeff Sneider, took to his podcast, The Hot Mic, following the release of his exclusive report where he spoke more on the the Glovers taking over writing duties and Simien exiting the series. Sneider said that Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion wasn’t a smooth production, with heavy reshoots taking place for the films third act, and that Simien wasn’t well versed in productions with heavy use of CGI, which led to the Dear White People writer-director being in post production on the flick for a while, which prompted Lucasfilm to move onto obtaining the the Glover brothers to write the project as Simien amicably exited as the studio were determined to continue development on the series.
Personally I’m very excited to hear that Donald and Stephen will now be penning the Lando series. I’m a huge fan of Atlanta, and I believe it to be one of the best series of the past decade, so I’m thrilled to see the siblings team up once again. I can’t help but hope that with the Glover brothers reuniting for Lando following the fourth season of Atlanta, which released last year, that the duo bring fellow Atlanta collaborator, Hiro Murai, who directed twenty six episodes of the series, over to Lando – I’d personally be overjoyed if that happens.
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