Lando Calrissian by Donald Glover is fast, charming and, according to Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan – pansexual. In an interview with HuffPost Kasdan said there is a "fluency" in the Glover and Billy Dee Williams performances of the beloved character. "I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character in this movie," says Kasdan. "I think it's time, no doubt, about that, and I love fluency, a kind of spectrum of sexuality that Donald uses and that the droids are a part of."
While GLAAD defines pansexuality as an attraction "for all gender identities", or [attraction] people regardless of their gender, "in this case, Kasdan is applying it too generously. have provoked a discussion about Lando's flirtatious joke with Han, and even a potential attraction between Lando and his co-pilot droid L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), but this act of retroactively making strange characters off the screen -which we will call the Rowling's Rule – benefits the public without actually offering real change, it's a tedious pattern in which fans mock (the popular term here is "queerbaiting") rather than rewarded with concrete representation.
Kasdan is not the first to do this. Harry Potter creator JK Rowling has the habit of declaring extra things about his characters that can not be Eden find explicitly nowhere in his novels, as Dumbledore is gay. (Even though he and his supposed love interest Gellert Grindelwald got extra time in the series Fantastic Beasts the filmmakers have so far decided to skip this important plot point) Thor: Ragnarok He cut a scene that would have confirmed Valkyrie of Tessa Thompson as bisexual. The Wonder Woman canonically queer had a male love interest in her latest explosion on the screen starring Gal Gadot.
Even within the universe of Star Wars Amilyn Holdo, played by Laura Dern, is written as a queer in novels rather than in movies. The director of Force Awakens J.J. Abrams has promised to include the inclusion in his films Star Wars . Fans will have to wait until Episode IX to see if they keep their promise, however, or if they are not allowed to dream about Finn and Poe ships on their own.
The claim that Lando is pansexual, because he seems to be interested in a female droid, is an opportunity for poor representation that still manages to reinforce heterosexual relationships as predetermined. And Kasdan's claim that Lando "does not make any hard and fast rule". I think it's fun "enters into a long and damaging tradition of combining pansexuality with promiscuity.Embracing sexual attraction to whoever captures your interest is not about breaking the rules.To represent it as such is a lazy shorthand for" wild and free. "
Kasdan's desire to represent the LGBT community is a charming thought, but it is just that: a thought Real representation means creating considerate and nuanced characters whose sexuality is treated respectfully on the screen while it is off. the creators want to do the right thing by the LGBT fans, they can start by removing them from the floor of the recording room.