Donald Glover was asked about remarks by Solo screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan this week that his Star Wars character, the young Lando Calrissian, was sexually fluid.
Said Glover: “How can you not be pansexual in space? There's so many things to have sex with. I'm serious. I didn't think that was weird. Yeah, he's coming on to everybody…It just didn't seem that weird to me. It's kind of like, the doors open. It's like, no, only guys or girls. No, it's anything. This thing is literally a blob. Are you a man or a woman? Like, who cares? Have a good time out here.”
Kasdan made the remarks to HuffPost when asked if Calrissian was pansexual: “I would say yes. There's a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee's (Lando in the Star Wars trilogy) sexuality. I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie. I think it's time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity—sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of. He doesn't make any hard and fast rules. I think it's fun. I don't know where it will go.”
The remarks did not go over well with many who suggested the Star Wars franchise was queerbaiting viewers and pandering and needed to make the characters explicit to make a difference.
The news caught the eye of Stephen Colbert, who made note of it in his monologue last night:
