Billy Dee Williams Defends Lando’s Controversial Star Wars Choice
Billy Dee Williams, probably best known for his role as Star Wars’ Lando Calrissian, has opened up about the persistent fan backlash over Lando’s betrayal of Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. For more than four decades, people have approached Williams in different settings, expressing their profound disappointment in Lando’s decisions. Recently, he shared his perspective on this prolonged fan backlash in an interview with EW’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast.
“When I would pick my daughter up from school, the kids would run up to me and say, ‘You betrayed Han Solo!'” Williams said (via EW). “I’d go on an airplane and the airplane stewards would say, ‘You betrayed Han Solo!'”
But, that’s not necessarily how Williams sees it–or has come to see over the last 40 years. “I got [people coming up to me] for a lotta years, so finally I said, ‘Look, think about the whole situation. You’re up against a pretty formidable character, Darth Vader, and then there’s Boba Fett, and these people were invading my space, and I had to bargain with them… to prevent at least the complete demise of Han Solo and his friends.”