2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a tour de force of Star Wars fan service. It brought back many of the practical elements of the franchise, a lot of the original mythology, and perhaps most importantly, a good portion of the original cast. We saw Harrison Ford return and the iconic Han Solo role, Carrie fisher as the now-General Leia, and for about five seconds Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

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But what other characters can we expect in the future? Some believed that Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian would be coming back to the franchise in the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi. There was pretty much no evidence to back this up, but fans are what fans are, and fans want with fans want. But Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was quick to dispel any speculation, while speaking EW:

“No, and I don’t want fans to get their hopes up. He’s not in the film and it was never really something that came up. I mean, I loved that character. It would have been fun to see him, but it’s just not something that ever really had a place in the story.”

So there you have it. Despite fans in their hopes and dreams, it sounds like Billy Dee Williams and Lando Calrissian will remain out of this new trilogy of Star Wars. Of course, this isn’t a bad thing. While we would all love to see a lot of our favorite characters, the last thing we want is fan service for fan service’s sake. At the end of the day, it would come across as forced and unneeded.

If there is one thing Rian Johnson has proved, it is that he is all about fan service so long as it pushes the story forward in a meaningful and natural way, and if it doesn’t, there is a good chance it wasn’t really needed. When all said and done, it all sounds like it’s all for the best.

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SOURCE: EW