Is Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Last Jedi?

Confirmed even before the film’s release, it comes as no surprise that Lando Calrissian does not make an appearance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi in any way, shape or form.

First introduced as a con man and Han Solo’s old pal, audiences met Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back when Han and Leia traveled to Cloud City. While there, we learned pieces of Lando’s history with the Millennium Falcon before he sold the romantic rebels out to Darth Vader. Obviously, he makes up for it in Return of the Jedi. To such an extent that he became a fan favorite and had audiences wondering why The Force Awakens refrained from making any references to him.

I mean, it couldn’t have been that hard to stick him in the background or give Han Solo a one-off line about how he hasn’t returned Lando’s space texts for like two weeks.

Still, there was a lot of stuff that The Force Awakens could’ve done (and didn’t) that left many hoping The Last Jedi would fill in those blanks.

But The Last Jedi didn’t come through either. At least, not in the Lando Calrissian department.

As confirmed by Entertainment Weekly last month, there’s no room for Lando in The Last Jedi:

"“No, and I don’t want fans to get their hopes up,” writer-director Rian Johnson tells EW. “He’s not in the film and it was never really something that came up. I mean, I loved that character. It would have been fun to see him, but it’s just not something that ever really had a place in the story.”"

I mean, that’s a pretty clear-cut statement.

But if you want to be optimistic, there’s a fun callback to the original trilogy with the pair of gold dice. While they seem like a cool knickknack for the Falcon, these are actually the dice that Han Solo used to win the freighter from Lando himself. So maybe that counts an eighth of a point, right?

Next: Is Star Wars: The Last Jedi okay for kids?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now playing in theaters.