Star Wars legacy icon Billy Dee Williams addresses the speculation about Naomi Ackie‘s Jannah being Lando Calrissian’s daughter in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
“They were trying to decide whether I should have a daughter,” Williams said during an interview on the Dagobah Dispatch podcast. “I don’t know if they decided to follow up on that idea. I haven’t heard any feedback or anything on where or what direction they want to take with that.”
The character of Jannah was introduced in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker as a First Order stormtrooper-turned-traitor who had been abducted as a child, similar to John Boyega’s Finn. During the final moments of the movie, after the First Order’s defeat, Lando shares a moment with Jannah where the former Cloud City ambassador offers to help her find where she came from.
Though Jannah’s backstory was never fully explained in the movie, the companion book The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary contains key details that fuel the Lando/Jannah relationship theory. In covering Lando’s whereabouts between 1983’s Return of the Jedi and Skywalker, the book reveals, “When peace reigned, [Lando] attempted to start a family, but tragedy struck and his infant daughter vanished. It was only later that it became clear who the culprits behind the abduction were: the First Order, building their fighting forces but also specifically striking out at the old Alliance leadership.”
Donald Glover’s Lando movie
While The Rise of Skywalker marks the end of Williams’ tenure as Lando, the character’s early adventures are set to be explored in a stand-alone movie starring Donald Glover, reprising the young version of Lando from 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. Glover’s brother Stephen confirmed the project which had been previously planned by Lucasfilm as a Disney+ series. Whether or not the movie will explore Lando’s family life remains unknown.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now streaming on Disney+.
