Although the destruction of the established Star Wars Expanded Universe brought out the inner-Sith rage of many longtime fans, there’s no denying that the biggest science fiction saga of all time has never felt healthier than it does right now. This is especially true in the pages of Marvel’s new Star Wars comics, which have been uniformly fantastic. And they’re about to get a little more fantastic because the great Lando Calrissian is getting his own series this summer.

Originally played by Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Lando is one of the great supporting players of the Star Wars universe, going from a traitorous scoundrel to genuine hero over the course of two films. He was also a standout in the first season of Star Wars Rebels, where he stopped by for an episode and was his usual dashing self. So yeah, we certainly don’t mind following the further adventures of the galaxy’s suavest con man.

Like the other Star Wars comics published this year, Marvel isn’t just tossing this assignment off to anyone. In fact, by handing Lando to writer Charles Soule and artist Alex Maleev, they’ve continued the trend of only letting top-tier talent reinvent the Star Wars universe in comic form. Here’s Soule’s quick pitch for the series, via StarWars.com:

Is Lando Calrissian the coolest character in all of Star Wars? Depends on who you ask, probably. But if you ask me, the answer is yes, and I plan to prove it with this story.

Soule also went into a little detail about the plot, placing the time of the story before The Empire Strikes Back. Like the main Star Wars title and its sister books Darth Vader and Princess Leia, Lando will presumably take place in the time between Episodes IV and V, filling in every available story gap. Here’s what the five issue seres will be about:

Before Cloud City, before his glorious Death Star run, Lando Calrissian was just a man trying to make his way through an uncaring universe determined not to recognize that he was undeniably the coolest man in the galaxy. But Lando’s got a plan to change all that ... and it starts with the deal of a lifetime.

Between Lando showing up on Rebels and getting his own comic series, we can’t help but wonder if maybe Disney and Lucasfilm are planting the seeds for Billy Dee Williams to return in Star Wars: Episode 8. After all, there’s no way the fans will say no to more Lando and there’s no way Williams will say no to being in Star Wars again. We shall see.

In the meantime, the first issue of Lando hits shelves this July. Here’s the cover for issue #1 by Lenil Francis Yu.

Lando cover
Marvel
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