Lando Calrissian is Han Solo's best friend, and a gambler, businessman, and scoundrel, who was the Baron Administrator of Cloud City on the planet of Bespin after he took over the city from the city's former Baron Administrator. He is one of the secondary protagonists in the original trilogy of the Star Wars universe, the tritagonist in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and a supporting character in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Lando is both a gambler and businessman, crook, and hero. Han referred to him as a card player, gambler, and scoundrel, this is in part reflected by his adventurous, risk-taking, and (seemingly) shallow nature. He is known for being a classy, dapper gentleman, with a sense of humor, fine fashion taste and more culture than the typical smugglers and pirates seen in some of his haunts. Despite his proficiency with weapons, Lando much preferred to use a con or trick to deceive an adversary rather than fight them.
Lando purposefully disguised his past, leaving it a mystery. He enjoyed being in charge almost as much as he liked creating profit in areas that others shunned. Lando could be talkative, though according to Han Solo, he is one of the biggest liars in the galaxy.
For all his love of adventure, Lando disliked complications and is fond of the "easy life". However, his adventurous, debonair exterior was augmented by his deep sense of loyalty. Lando does not like weapons in general and during his gambling career, usually eschewed all but a small stingbeam. Although he often dealt with criminals and others of questionable legality, Lando had no tolerance for bounty hunters and despised them in general, when possible. He cared greatly about his fashion sense.
Despite his status as a gambler and smuggler at the time, Lando is also selfless.
In his youth, Lando enjoyed playing Sabacc and Han described him as having been a scoundrel. However, after losing the Millennium Falcon, Lando sought to turn into a respectable businessman and he turned Cloud City into a mostly-legitimate enterprise. He is protective of his people to the point that he (reluctantly) betrayed Han and the Rebels to save Cloud City from the wrath of the Galactic Empire, for whom Lando had no love for. However, he turned against the Empire, in order to give his citizens a chance to escape and to save Han. Although Han had felt betrayed by Lando's actions, the two reconciled after Han was rescued from Tatooine, and shared a warm embrace during the victory celebration on Endor.
Abilities[]
Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Although rarely seen, Lando is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant.
Expert Marksman: Lando is extremely skilled in utilizing blaster pistols and blaster rifles.
Expert Pilot: Lando is extremely skilled in piloting various speeders and every type of flying crafts.
Weapons[]
X-8 Night Sniper: During his time as a smuggler and as a general for the Rebel Alliance and the subsequent New Republic, Lando used an X-8 Night Sniper (made from a Walther PP pistol).
Dual SE-14r light repeating blasters: During his time as a smuggler, Lando also carried two SE-14r blaster pistols (made from a Rexim Favor submachine gun) in addition to his X-8 Night Sniper. According to Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide, Lando had these two pistols was plated in brushed chromium, mined from one of Naboo's moons, with a Tibrin mother-of-pearl handle. They also featured a removable noise suppressor/extended barrel for long-distance targets. In the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, Lando had one of the pistols crafted into a prod pistol which he shot a First Order stormtrooper with an arrow.
DL-44 heavy blaster pistol: Lando carried a DL-44 heavy blaster pistol to kill Aleksin while aboard Imperialis Palpatine's luxury pleasure craft.
DH-17 blaster pistol: Lando sometimes wielded a DH-17 blaster pistol, a standard sidearm in the Rebel Alliance.
Stingbeam sidearm blaster: Before the Battle of Endor, Lando had a small black-plated blaster pistol (made from a Heckler & Koch P9S double-action pistol) was carried in a shoulder holster.
History[]
Meeting Han[]
Qi'ra and her comrades, Tobias Beckett, Han Solo, and Chewbacca, recruited Lando on Vandor, as they needed a fast ship in order to steal unrefined coaxium from the Pykes on Kessel for Dryden Vos. The group found him hustling several bar patrons at sabacc by hiding a card up his sleeve. Solo joined in the game, and the stakes soon became Lando's Falcon against Han's VCX-100 light freighter. Han produced an impressive hand that caused the other bar patrons to erupt in applause, but Lando produced a superior hand by cheating. Lando inquired where Solo's ship was, but Qi'ra intervened, explaining the situation. Lando agreed to pilot the Falcon for the heist, in exchange for a 25% cut, negotiated down to 20% by Beckett, who Lando recognizes as the man who killed Aurra Sing, who Lando owned a large debt to her.
Lando gets his droid L3-37, who was causing trouble again but manages to get her to the ship. On Kessel, Lando remained aboard the Falcon during the heist and updated his autobiography, the Calrissian Chronicals. When the group returned with the coaxium, Lando helped lay down covering fire against the Pykes until L3 was shot. Lando attempted to save L3, but was shot in the arm, and it took the efforts of Han and Chewbacca to save him and L3. Aboard the Falcon, L3 died in a distraught Lando's arms. Due to his injury, Lando reluctantly allowed Solo to pilot the Falcon off Kessel.
The crew encountered an Imperial blockade when departing Kessel, causing Solo to divert his course into the dangerous maelstrom. Lando retrieved L3's central processor and plugged it into the Falcon's navicomputer in order to plot a course out of the maelstrom, in which navigation was otherwise impossible. The Falcon crew encountered a massive space creature, called the Summa-verminoth within the Maw, a powerful gravity well. Solo launched the Falcon's escape pod into the gravity well, causing the creature to follow it and become trapped. The Falcon became trapped in the gravity well, only escaping when Beckett used a drop of coaxium in order to give the Falcon the power to escape.
When the crew arrived at the refinery on Savareen in order to refine the coaxium, Lando was furious with Han for the damage sustained by his beloved ship despite their miraculous escape. He abandoned the others in the Falcon when Enfys Nest and her Cloud-Riders arrived on Savareen to confront Beckett.
After Han defeated Vos and Beckett, he and Chewbacca later tracked Calrissian to Numidian Prime, where he was once again hustling others at sabacc. Han swiped Calrissian's spare card when he greeted him and won the Falcon in a rematch, leaving with it.
Meeting the Lothal Rebels[]
Lando appears in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Idiot's Array", where Zeb loses Chopper to him betting on a game of Sabaac, forcing the Ghost crew to assist him with a dangerous smuggling run to get their droid back. However, during the smuggling run Lando trades Hera Syndulla to crime lord Azmorigan in exchange for a puffer pig, which can detect precious minerals for mining purposes, leaving Hera to escape in an escape pod. Humiliated, Azmorigan and his henchmen intercept the rebels on Lothal to take revenge. The crew successfully drive the gangsters away. The rebels part ways with Lando, though not before Chopper steals the fuel to Lando's ship, which the smuggler concedes as payment for their help.
Administrator of Cloud City[]
Lando first appears in as the administrator of Cloud City, concerned primarily with keeping the Galactic Civil War and the Empire out of his affairs. One day, Darth Vader arrives and blackmails Lando to betray his old friend Han Solo over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett by threatening to take over the city with leaving a garrison of his elite 501st Legion there if Lando refused; under the orders of Palpatine. Unwilling to leave the city in the hands of the Empire, Lando reluctantly does so, but his conscience gets the better of him when Vader seemingly goes back on his word and takes Leia Organa and Chewbacca as prisoners (however, it is actually Palpatine who goes back on his word, and Vader is reluctantly following orders). In the ensuing evacuation of Cloud City, he helps Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO escape. He then assists Leia in rescuing the maimed Luke Skywalker from the underside of Cloud City. Afterwards, he joins the Rebel Alliance and promises Leia he will find Han before he and Chewie take off from the Alliance Navy in the Millennium Falcon to begin their search for Boba Fett.[1]
General of the Rebel Alliance[]
Lando later goes undercover as one of Jabba's skiff guards to help Luke rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt. He is able to remain undiscovered during his tenure as one of Jabba's men, only lowering his mouth guard quietly as he watches Chewie being taken away to be placed in the dungeon by Jabba's Gamorrean Guards. When Leia is discovered later that night by Jabba after freeing Han from his carbonite slab, Lando is one of the guards who bring her before Jabba before she is stripped of her Boushh disguise and placed in her slave girl outfit as Jabba's new personal slave girl. When Luke is dropped into the Rancor pit, Lando is one of the guards who pull Jabba's throne forward for him to watch the carnage, assuring a worried Leia that Luke would be fine, then slips off to grab Luke when Jabba demands they be brought before him after Luke killed the rancor. During a heated battle with Jabba's henchmen, Lando unmasks himself and participates in the action. Near the end of the fighting, Han saves Lando from being devoured by a sarlacc as, despite Han still recovering from hibernation sickness, he is able to shoot and wound the sarlacc in the tentacle it had grabbed Lando with, forcing it to let go as it bellows in pain, allowing Han and Chewbacca to pull him back onto the skiff; in return, Lando helps Han and his friends destroy Jabba's sail barge. For his heroics, along with his success later on in the Battle of Tanaab, he is made a general in the Rebel Alliance. He then takes the pilot chair in the Millennium Falcon, which was originally his, and leads the attack on the second Death Star within the famed cruiser with his co-pilot Nien Nunb and several fellow Rebels handling the other functions on the ship, such as the quad laser cannons on the top and bottom of the ship and other systems, acting under the callsign "Gold Leader" as he leads the fighters while Admiral Ackbar leads the rest of the Alliance Navy from his flagship, the MC80A Star Cruiser Home One.
Battle of Endor[]
Initially, the plan was to have a strike team led by Han land on the forest moon of Endor to destroy the shield generator protecting the second Death Star, while Ackbar had the Alliance Navy set up a perimeter around the second Death Star while Lando and the fighters flew into the superstructure and took out the main reactor. With the main reactor destroyed, the second Death Star would soon follow, killing Emperor Palpatine while he was aboard and decapitating the Empire with the loss of their leader. However, when the fleet arrives, Nien tells Lando that he can't get a reading on the condition of the the second Death Star's shield and realizes their sensors are being jammed. Lando soon realizes that they've been lured into a trap and orders the fighters to break off, before they find themselves facing the Imperial Navy led by the flagship, the Executor-class Star DreadnoughtExecutor, under Admiral Firmus Piett, and Lando orders the fighters to keep the TIE fighters and TIE interceptors away from the larger Alliance ships, but soon becomes curious as to why the Executor and the Imperial-class Star Destroyers are not engaging them. He soon learns why when the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Liberty is destroyed, startling him, Nien, and their crewmates on the Falcon, and sees what caused it: The superlaser of the second Death Star.
Realizing the Emperor has lured them into a trap to wipe out the Rebellion once and for all, Lando contacts Ackbar, who prepares to order a retreat, but when Lando protests that if the Alliance retreats now, they won't get another chance to destroy the second Death Star while the Emperor is on board, Ackbar reminds him that none of the Rebel ships, not even the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, have shields that could protect them from the high power the superlaser packs. Lando begs for Ackbar to stay and fight, trusting Han will destroy the shield generator, but they must give him more time. To that end, Lando orders the Alliance Navy to engage the Imperial Navy in point-blank ship-to-ship combat, gambling that the second Death Star's crew won't fire the superlaser at the Rebel fleet under risk of hitting a friendly Imperial vessel in the process, and might even take a few of the Imperial Star Destroyers with them if they go down fighting.
Thankfully, word soon comes in that Han has destroyed the shield generator, and Ackbar gives the order for the attack on the main reactor. Lando takes Wedge and several fighters with him into the second Death Star, but then has the two A-wings and Y-wing with him split off to head back to the surface in the hopes of luring some of the TIEs on their tail with them. With only two TIE interceptors pursuing the Falcon and Wedge's X-wing into the main reactor, Lando has Wedge attack the main reactor's north power regulator while he takes out the top of the core itself. The damage triggers a massive explosion that dooms the second Death Star, and while the TIE Interceptors are destroyed while trying to still chase the Falcon, Lando is able to fly the ship out of the battle station just in time, cheering with Nien as they head back to the Alliance Navy as they retreat to the forest moon, leaving the second Death Star to be destroyed, sounding the death knell for the Empire.
With the second Death Star destroyed, along with the Emperor, Darth Vader, and the Executor, the Empire was finished, and Lando reunites with Han, Leia, Luke, Chewie, C-3PO, and R2-D2 on Endor to celebrate the Rebellion's victory in Bright Tree Village with the Ewoks.[2]
The Rise of Skywalker[]
Lando runs into Resistance members. It is revealed he was living on Pasaana, wearing a special helmet to conceal his identity. He helps Rey to find the Sith wayfinder that will lead to Exegol, and later he joins the rest of the Resistance in their battle against the Sith Eternal's fleet, the Final Order. At the end of the movie, he offers to help Jannah find her family.[3]
Lando Calrissian is a playable character in Star Wars: Force Arena as a Legendary squad leader card.
Printed media[]
Shadow of the Sith[]
Lando appears in Shadow of the Sith, where he heard Ochi of Bestoon in a bar and heard he was tracking a family for the Sith. Fearing for the family's safety, Lando recruited Luke Skywalker and several contacts to help track down Ochi. They drove in his new ship the Lady Luck, a Personal Luxury 3000 space yacht. While the trail ended on Pasaana, Lando decided to stay there incase Ochi resurfaced. Komat, a former member of the Acolytes of the Beyond, gives Lando her Wind Raider helmet, which Lando wore while living as a hermit on Pasaana.
Lando[]
Lando starts in his 5-issue comic series where he goes to Imperialis Palpatine's luxury pleasure craft to settle some of his debt from the crime boss Papa Toren. He regains a trinket from Ssaria but Toren has him do one more job which Lando recruits Lobot, Aleksin and Pavol; two enigmatic alien warriors who are brothers or clones, along with Korin Pers. Once the group gets aboard the Imperialis, Lando and the group fight off a pair of Royal Guards, who faces they find to be disfigured. Lobot got injured as Aleksin attacks the group due to staring at a strange mask (the Mask of Lord Momin). The group run into Chanath Chas, Lobot's old lover, who sets the ship to self-destruct but helps Lando fights off Pavol. After the panther aliens were taken care off Chanath escapes in an escape pod while Lando and Lobot escapes in another pod.
Lando - Double or Nothing[]
Lando stars in another 5-issue comic about himself. This takes place before the Solo movie. Lando and L3-37 are recruited by Kristiss to smuggle weapons to a group of Petrusians who had been enslaved by the Galactic Empire. While on Kullgroon, the three head into different places where Lando runs into several outlaws and kills them. Lando is chased by several ships before being shot down and taken prisoner by the outlaws who is lead by Batalla, who Lando swindled at the Calladus Festival. As Lando escapes his cell, he is force to participate in a gladiator game. Lando manages to kill two of his attackers when L3 came to his rescue. After Lando gets onto the Falcon, he contacts Kristiss and heads into an ice cave where he ends up fighting the large spider creatures there. Lando finds Kristiss, who is with her father Rythus. After rallying Kristiss' people, Lando helps the group fight off the Imperials until he was that Rythus also programmed the droids to help fight. But Lando notices the Falcon was taken over by stormtroopers and L3-37 talked him out of attacking the stormtroopers and they made their way over to the rest of the group. A week later, Lando and L3 are on Vandor, where he promise to get the Falcon back, but he wanted to settle down for a little bit and play a few games of sabacc to pay off his debts to Brushaun.
Billy Dee Williams, Lando's actor, expressed interest in reprising his role of Lando in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but he did not appear in the film. He reprised his role of Lando in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last installment of the sequel trilogy.
Lando's current origins differ from Legend Origins until a Empire Strikes Back.
In Legends:
Born on an unspecified Core World (possibly Socorro)
Came from a noble or wealthy family; left to seek his fortune
Became a professional gambler and suave con man
Traveled the galaxy entering sabacc tournaments and minor scams
Won the Millennium Falcon in a sabacc game from an unnamed opponent
Heavily modified the Falcon for personal luxury
Partnered with Vuffi Raa, a mysterious, intelligent, starfish-shaped droid
Treated Vuffi as a trusted companion during early adventures
Starred in The Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy:
Explored ancient tech (Mindharp of Sharu), battled flamewinds, and helped aliens in ThonBoka
Fought against the sorcerer Roker Gepta and Galactic Empire.
Met Han Solo through shared gambling circles
Lost the Falcon to Han in a sabacc game (details vague)
Knew Chewbacca as Han's partner; respected his strength
Became Baron Administrator of Cloud City, managing gas mining operations
Ran the city profitably but allowed some shady deals under the radar
Had no major political alignment before Empire Strikes Back
Forced to betray Han and Leia under Imperial pressure from Darth Vader.
In Canon:
Born on Socorro, full name Landonis Balthazar Calrissian
Raised in a respectable family, but left to live free and adventurously
Known for his gambling, cheating, and high style
Made his name hustling sabacc games and swindling in high-class circles
Owned the Millennium Falcon (already heavily modified)
Lost it to Han Solo in a fair sabacc game after being caught cheating
Co-pilot was L3-37, a self-aware droid rights activist with a unique personality
L3 died on Kessel and her mind was uploaded into the Falcon's navicomputer
Participated in the Kessel Run with Han, Chewbacca, Qi'ra, and Beckett
Injured and bitter after losing the Falcon and L3
Left the group and returned to independent scoundrel life
Met Han Solo during a sabacc tournament on Vandor-1
Initially distrusted Han, but worked with him on the Kessel job
Lost the Falcon to Han after a rematch where Han out-cheated him
Met Chewbacca during the same mission and grew to admire him
Took over Cloud City to go "legit" after his scoundrel days
Attempted to keep the city independent from Imperial and Rebel conflicts
Same arc: Lando strikes a deal with Vader to protect his city
Shocked by Vader's continued demands; begins to turn against the Empire
Lando Calrissian on Wookieepedia
