He is one of the few Original Trilogy actors to neither confirm or deny a return in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and yet Billy Dee Williams has already returned to the Star Wars Universe as lovable rogue Lando Calrissian.
Williams makes his appearance in the eleventh episode of Star Wars Rebels, which airs on the Disney XD channel, and follows Frank Oz who lent his voice once again to Yoda in a previous episode. The series is set between Episodes III and IV and follows the fortunes of a band of unruly types who are thrown together as the Rebel Alliance begins to form. Perfect canon-fodder before the Sequel Trilogy and Spin-Offs enter cinemas.
Entertainment Weekly have a very fun, though not embeddable, video with the creative team and Williams himself talking about bringing Calrissian back. As this is a prequel of sorts the scoundrel hasn’t quite formed yet and he is not as accomplished a rapscallion as we come to know him.
Nice to see him back, both as an actor and as a character. Let’s see if he sticks around and we catch up with him on the big screen next time.
Here are a few pictures from the episode which Jason Ward, showrunner of the excellent SW site Making Star Wars.net has a fine review of the episode here.
