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Jar Jar Binks

Jar Jar Binks is a fictional character of the Gungan race from the Star Wars saga created by George Lucas. Jar Jar appears throughout the Star Wars prequel trilogy – as a major character in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and with a supporting role in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith – as well as having a role in the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The first fully computer-generated supporting character in a live-action film, he has been voiced by Ahmed Best in most of his appearances, who also acted out the character with prosthetics prior to the CGI work. The last mention of Binks is in the 2017 canonical novel Aftermath: Empire's End.

Jar Jar's primary role in Episode I was to provide comic relief for the audience. He was met with overwhelming dislike from both audiences and critics, and has been recognized as one of the most hated characters in Star Wars and the history of film in general, with some commentators arguing that the character was based on stereotypes of black people, especially Jamaicans. The hate affected Best personally, who rejected the idea that the character was based on racist stereotypes.

In 2010, Adult Swim released Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III which included a sketch where Binks, voiced by Ahmed Best himself, revealed that he was a Sith Lord throughout the six films, and had manipulated Palpatine himself. Five years later, in 2015, a Reddit user posted a fan theory that Jar Jar was originally going to be revealed as a manipulative villain, but this plot point was removed due to the character's unpopularity. The theory gained popularity on the internet, and was even encouraged by Best, who implied that it could have been partially true.

The character's reception changed as he was championed by fans who had seen the prequels at the time of their release as children. He has also been defended by members of the prequels' production team. Since then Ahmed Best felt grateful for the support and admiration.

Conception
George Lucas was inspired to develop Jar Jar based on the Disney character Goofy. Singer Michael Jackson wanted to play the role, but wished to portray the character using prosthetics while Lucas wanted him to be all CGI. Ahmed Best was cast based on his work in the production of Stomp, as Lucas wanted someone athletic for the role. During his audition he performed several martial arts moves and flips, which according to Best was a contrast to how Lucas pictured the character, more in line with comedic silent actors such as Buster Keaton. After Lucas walked out of the audition, Best felt he had failed it. Terryl Whitlatch created the final designs for the "cowardly and insecure" character.

Best wore a prosthetic costume to portray Jar Jar, which cost about $100,000 and served as a reference for the actors to interact with, animators to base the performance on, and digital artists to match the lighting. He was the first computer-generated supporting character in a live-action film, although in a small number of shots (such as those only showing the character's hands or feet), the costume was not replaced with CGI.

Films
Jar Jar appears in only the films of the prequel trilogy.

The Phantom Menace
Jar Jar Binks first appears in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as a bumbling, foolish Gungan from the planet Naboo who is banished by his tribe as punishment for his clumsiness. He is nearly killed by a Trade Federation transport, only to be saved at the last minute by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). Qui-Gon and his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), persuade Jar Jar's tribe to release him to their custody as a guide. He later goes with the Jedi and Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) to the planet Tatooine, where he meets and befriends nine-year-old slave Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd).

Jar Jar later appears in the film's climactic battle scene, where he leads his fellow Gungans, as a general in the Gungan army, in defeating the Trade Federation. After the battle, he appears at the funeral of Qui-Gon Jinn and in the ending parade with his fellow Gungans.

Attack of the Clones
Jar Jar's role in Attack of the Clones is much smaller, but his actions are significant. Ten years after helping save his planet, he is a delegate to the Galactic Senate and as such, plays a role in bringing his old friends, Obi-Wan and Anakin (Hayden Christensen), back to Coruscant, where he greets them with enthusiasm. Later, on behalf of Naboo, he gives a speech to the assembled Senate in favor of granting Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) vast emergency powers.

Revenge of the Sith
Jar Jar appears in only a few scenes in Revenge of the Sith, and has no dialogue (besides a brief "'scuse me" at one point). He was originally given some dialogue in the beginning, but this was cut. Another cut scene would have shown Palpatine mocking Jar Jar for putting him in power before crowning himself emperor. He is most prominently featured in Padmé Amidala's funeral procession at the end of the film, marching sadly behind her coffin alongside Boss Nass.

The Clone Wars television series
Jar Jar Binks is a supporting character in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, once again voiced by Best, although Phil LaMarr voiced the character in three season one episodes under the pseudonym BJ Hughes. In this series, he is a Senate representative who sometimes accompanies the main characters—Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, and Anakin's padawan Ahsoka Tano—on their adventures. He and Jedi Master Mace Windu are the two main characters of the two-part episode "The Disappeared" in which they had to search for missing elders and rescue a queen, who was Jar Jar's past love interest.

Aftermath: Empire's End
Chuck Wendig's 2017 novel Star Wars: Aftermath: Empire's End, set after the events of Return of the Jedi, finds Binks as a street performer who entertains refugee children but is loathed by adults who blame him for his part in the rise of the Empire. Chris Taylor of Mashable wrote that the situation reflects real life in that adults disliked Jar Jar in the prequel films, but children were entertained by him.

In an interview, director J. J. Abrams suggested that Jar Jar's death might be referenced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but this did not happen.

Legends
With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.

In the game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Jar Jar is shown to have been frozen in carbonite by an Imperial officer and kept in his trophy room.

Video games
Binks appears as a playable character in the Lego Star Wars video games, and appears as an Angry Bird with a hook move called "Jar Jar Wings" in Angry Birds Star Wars II.

Other appearances
Ahmed Best was signed on to portray Binks in the show Star Wars Detours.

Reception
Even before the release of The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks became the subject of significant media and popular attention. After the film's release, Binks became symbolic of what many reviewers such as Brent Staples (The New York Times), David Edelstein (Slate), and Eric Harrison (Los Angeles Times) considered to be creative flaws of the film. The character was widely rejected and often ridiculed by people who felt that Jar Jar was included in the film solely to appeal to children (a criticism first leveled with the introduction of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi). Bruce Handy of Vanity Fair wrote that "Jar Jar has come to symbolize what many fans see as the faults of the prequel trilogy: characters no one much cares about; a sense of humor geared toward the youngest conceivable audience members; an over-reliance on computer graphics; and story lines devoted to the kinds of convoluted political machinations which wouldn't have been out of place in adaptations of I, Claudius or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but which fit less snugly in films with characters like Jar Jar Binks." One fan, Mike J. Nichols, created and distributed, free of charge, a modified version of the film, entitled The Phantom Edit, which cut out several scenes featuring what Nichols dubbed 'Jar Jar antics.' The character was also lampooned on an episode of the television show South Park entitled "Jakovasaurs", in The Fairly OddParents (Episode: "Abra-Catastrophe!"), The Simpsons (Episode: "Co-Dependents' Day"), as well as the parody Star Wars episodes of Robot Chicken, in which Best reprised the role in voice-over form.

In response to the criticism surrounding Jar Jar, Star Wars creator George Lucas stated that he feels there is a section of the fanbase upset that "the movies are for children but they don't want to admit that... There is a small group of fans that do not like comic sidekicks. They want the films to be tough like The Terminator, and they get very upset and opinionated about anything that has anything to do with being childlike."

In July 2018, Best said that the widespread criticism of his character had led to him considering suicide. Fans felt sorry for and showed their support for Best, feeling that toxic abuse is unacceptable. Among the group of people is the interpreter of Yoda, Frank Oz, who said that he enjoyed the character Jar Jar Binks and wrote on Twitter: “I LOVED Jar Jar Binks. I know I’ll get raked over the coals for saying that but I just will never understand the harshness of people’s dislike of him. I do character work. He is a GREAT character! Okay. Go ahead. Shoot. Gimme all ya got—but you’ll never make me change my mind.”

In April 2019, during the annual Star Wars Celebration event ahead of the 20th anniversary panel for The Phantom Menace, George Lucas named Jar Jar as his favorite Star Wars character.

Allegations of racial caricature
In an article for The Wall Street Journal, film critic Joe Morgenstern described the character as a "Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen." Legal scholar Patricia J. Williams argued that many aspects of Jar Jar Bink's characterization were reminiscent of the blackface archetypes in minstrel shows, while academic Paul J. Ford suggested the character is a "laid-back clown character" which utilized stereotypes of Afro-Caribbean people. Lucasfilm responded to these claims by denying that there were any racist intentions during the character's creation. George Lucas has also responded, stating that "those criticisms are made by people who've obviously never met a Jamaican....How in the world could you take an orange amphibian and say that he's a Jamaican?". Ahmed Best also rejected such claims, stating that "Jar Jar has nothing to do with the Caribbean".

Speculations of villainy
On December 19, 2010, Adult Swim released Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III, an animated comedy special parody of Star Wars. In the first sketch, titled The Emperor's Back, Emperor Palpatine feels remorse for his actions and calls Binks, voiced by Ahmed Best himself, on the telephone, apologizing to him for manipulating him into granting Palpatine emergency powers in the senate during Attack of the Clones. Binks pretends to accept this apology, feigning innocence, but after he hangs up he reveals that he was in fact a Sith Lord, named Darth Jar Jar, who only pretended to be manipulated by Palpatine and actually manipulated Palpatine himself. This sketch was in reference to a popular in-joke among Star Wars fans. Five years later, in late October 2015, a Reddit user by the name of "Lumpawarroo" (the name of Chewbacca's son) published a detailed theory speculating that Binks was originally written as a major antagonist of the series, a manipulative, prominent collaborator of Palpatine, before being written off from his major villain's role due to the character's negative reception. This theory was related to an earlier interview with actor Ahmed Best in /r/IAmA, where he claimed that Jar Jar had been displaced from the story's main focus due to the backlash, implying at the same time that the hate received by the character was not entirely unintentional.

The post quickly became popular and received significant media coverage internationally by independent bloggers and major news outlets like The Guardian, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, which included analysis of his actions in The Phantom Menace and gave him the nickname of "Darth Jar Jar". Journalist Andrew Street from The Guardian called it a "classic twist", comparing it to Yoda's role in The Empire Strikes Back, while Matt Hickey from Forbes went to the extent of contacting George Lucas about the question, but received no answer.

In response to the speculations, Best tweeted, "I will say this, it feels really good when the hidden meaning behind the work is seen. No matter how long it takes," apparently confirming the theory. Some months later, he expanded upon his tweet in a YouTube interview, stating, "there is a lot about [the theory] that is true, there are some things about it that are not true... Could Jar Jar have evolved into that? I think the answer is yes. Because of the backlash, and rightfully so, Lucasfilm backed off of Jar Jar a lot, but a lot of the influence that I put into the character mirrored a lot of what was already in the Star Wars universe." Best concluded only Lucas could unveil the actual role of Binks, yet he also claimed that a deleted scene from Attack of the Clones would have still shown Palpatine darkly confiding his plans about the Empire to Jar Jar.

J. J. Abrams, who directed two installments of the franchise's sequel trilogy after its buyout by Disney, personally approved of the theory about the villainous Jar Jar. He described Lumpawarroo's argumentation as an "unbelievably lengthy analysis, in a very seriously thought-out way, as to why it's obviously true he's [evil]."

In 2019, when questioned about it, Best stated again only Lucas could answer, but he confirmed the theorists' idea of Jar Jar's antics being actually a disguised fighting style akin to drunken boxing, revealing that he based his performance on Jackie Chan's role in the 1978 film Drunken Master. He said, "the Darth Jar Jar theory caught it - caught it. I never thought anybody would see that".

The Darth Jar Jar theory is referenced in the upcoming Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy animated miniseries, in which a Jedi relic accidentally rewrites reality and turns Jar Jar, reprised by Best, into a Sith Lord.

Character reassessment
Since the release of the movie The Phantom Menace, many people who have worked on the Star Wars films and viewers have defended Jar Jar Binks.

Filmmaker and creator George Lucas defended the character Jar Jar Binks by clarifying that the Star Wars films were made for 12-year-old children. He has said from the beginning in early interviews for A New Hope that the series was intended for children.

In an interview with IGN during the premiere of The Force Awakens, Yoda's performer Frank Oz stated that Jar Jar Binks is his favorite character: "I love Jar Jar Binks. I swear to god I do... When I saw that script I thought he was a fantastic character and I don't know what the heck happened… I thought he was fantastic; he was hysterical. He reminded me of Abbott and Costello."

Actor Liam Neeson praised Ahmed Best for his portrayal of Jar Jar Binks: "I know a lot of fans and critics didn't like it. Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks, received a lot of criticism, to the point where it really hurt his career. And I have to say that when he was making that movie, with Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks and with Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was probably one of the funniest and most talented guys I've ever worked with. I remember calling... my old ex-agent... and saying, 'Listen, I think I just worked with the new Eddie Murphy.' And I still believe it."

During the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace film, many members of the prequel production team have defended the character and appreciated the public's acceptance at the Star Wars Celebration panel. Visual effects supervisor John Knoll reflected: "Well, I think it's good to see [his newfound popularity], because I think George took a lot of the criticism pretty harshly. It was kind of painful for me to see how cruel people were about it and how personally George took it. I think the movies didn't deserve as much hate as they received. It hurt me to see how much George took those things." He also said, "I thought [the Star Wars Celebration panel] was great, especially the warm reaction there was to Ahmed. I know he took all the vicious comments people had about Jar Jar very hard. That's not his fault, he didn't write that character. He's an actor who did a really good job and worked hard to get it right. Seeing the really warm reaction of the crowd made me feel... It was moving.". Animation director Rob Coleman said that twenty years later he still has younger people coming up to him and telling him that Jar Jar is their favorite character. Digital model designer Jean Bolte cited Jar Jar Binks as one of her favorite characters to work with alongside Sebulba and Yoda, saying, "Going to Star Wars Celebration and seeing and hearing the fans so interested in which one was our contribution… It really completely changed my point of view about being privileged to have had anything to do with these films.".

In an interview with Europa Press during the premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a journalist asked actress Felicity Jones who she would like to receive a gift from if she were in the Star Wars galaxy at Christmas time and she responded: "I think she would be very interested to receive a gift from Jar Jar Binks or C-3P0."

Ahmed Best was moved by people's appreciation for Jar Jar Binks: "It was definitely the kids. I had to start looking at Jar Jar through their eyes, and that's what made me smile again. Now those kids, they are between 20 and 30 years old. They have a different perspective on The Phantom Menace. The Phantom Menace, for them, is their Star Wars. [Episodes] IV, V and VI, that's their parents' Star Wars, and VII, VIII and IX, that's their children's Star Wars. But the prequels, that's theirs, and they defend the prequels. So I see the same thing. I see the resurgence of The Phantom Menace." He then talked about his experience of going to Star Wars Celebration: "To be very honest, I was very afraid to go to Celebration. Every time I'm in a Star Wars setting, I spend most of my time defending our work and defending Jar Jar. And I just don't want to do that anymore. So I was very reluctant to come to Celebration because of that, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't the case at all. I just felt nothing but love and respect and admiration for the work we did. I couldn't have been more proud and I couldn't have been happier. I wish George was there because I think we're at a time right now where we have to stand in that work. We have to say, “We did it,” and step into that in a very proud way, because it stands the test of time."

title: Jar Jar Binks


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Endor

Endor or Ein Dor may refer to:

Places

 * Endor (village), from the Hebrew Bible, a Canaanite village where the Witch of Endor lived
 * Indur, a Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
 * Ein Dor, a Kibbutz in modern Israel

Fictional locations

 * Endor (Star Wars), the fictional forest moon which is home to the Ewoks, or the gas giant the moon orbits, of the same name
 * Middle-earth, in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Arda, where Endor is the Quenya name for it
 * Endor, the most successful nation in the video game Dragon Quest IV

Other uses

 * ENDOR, electron nuclear double resonance, a variation of electron spin resonance
 * Endor, a DJ who remixed Danzel's hit "Pump It Up!" in 2019
 * Endor AG, a German simulation racing peripherals manufacturer

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Endor


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Wedge Antilles

Wedge Antilles is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is a supporting character portrayed by Denis Lawson in the original Star Wars trilogy, and voiced by David Ankrum in Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and Rogue One (2016). He is also featured in the Star Wars expanded universe, most notably as the lead character in most of the X-Wing novels. Antilles has also appeared in the sequel trilogy film The Rise of Skywalker (2019), with Lawson reprising his role; in the 2014 animated series Star Wars Rebels, voiced by Nathan Kress; and in the 2023 second volume of Star Wars: Visions, voiced again by Lawson.

Before defecting to the Rebel Alliance, Antilles was an Imperial cadet (callsign: TIE SS25 ) of the Skystrike Academy. Antilles founded Rogue Squadron with his friend Luke Skywalker. His superior piloting skills, in-depth knowledge of Imperial military doctrine, and tactical leadership quickly propelled him through the ranks to become Marshal of the Alliance Starfighter Corps. Antilles is notable for having participated in more starfighter battles ending with decisive victories than any other character: he led the allied assault during the Battle of Exegol; he piloted a snowspeeder in the defense of Echo Base on Hoth; and is the only Rebel starfighter pilot to have survived both attack runs on the Death Stars at the battles of Yavin and Endor.

Depiction
Wedge Antilles was first seen in the 1977 film A New Hope in the Rebels' Death Star attack briefing. In this scene he was portrayed by Colin Higgins and voiced by David Ankrum, who dubbed the character throughout the film. For the remaining scenes filmed in the X-wing cockpit, the character was played by Denis Lawson. Higgins was originally cast in the role of Antilles but reportedly had difficulty remembering his lines, and was consequently replaced by Lawson for subsequent scenes, but Higgins' scene remained in the final cut of the film. The discrepancy became a popular subject in Star Wars fandom, and Higgins acquired the nickname "Fake Wedge".

Lawson reprised the role of Antilles in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Lawson used his own voice in these films, masking his natural Scottish accent with an imitation of an American accent. Ankrum was also the voice of Antilles in Rogue One. Coincidentally, Denis Lawson is the maternal uncle of Ewan McGregor, who made his first appearance in the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Films
Wedge Antilles appears towards the end of Star Wars as "Red Two", an X-wing pilot and a member of Red Squadron. His considerable dogfighting prowess is shown in the Battle of Yavin when he saves Luke Skywalker by shooting down a TIE fighter that Luke had been unable to shake off with a head-on, high deflection angle shot. Along with Luke and Biggs Darklighter, Antilles is one of only three X-wing pilots to survive until the final attack runs along the Death Star's trench. However, his X-wing is damaged, and he is forced to disengage before the Death Star is destroyed. He and Luke are the only two X-wing pilots to survive the battle, along with a Y-wing and the Millennium Falcon.

Antilles appears in The Empire Strikes Back as a member of the newly formed Rogue Squadron. He flies a snowspeeder under the callsign "Rogue Three" against the Empire's AT-AT ground assault with Wes Janson as his harpoon gunner. Their snowspeeder inflicts the first casualty against the AT-AT attack group by firing a harpoon trailing a tow cable into one of the walker's legs and circling the walker several times, causing it to trip and fall and allowing Rebel forces to destroy the walker. After the battle, Antilles is seen and heard wishing Luke a safe trip.

Antilles appears towards the end of Return of the Jedi as the leader of Red Squadron in the Battle of Endor. Along with Lando Calrissian, who pilots the Millennium Falcon with Nien Nunb, he leads the fighter attack on the second Death Star. His dogfighting prowess is shown again in this battle, as Antilles personally shoots down a number of Imperial TIE fighters, and appears to easily navigate the narrow and treacherous flight spaces inside the Death Star that lead to its core. When he and Calrissian reach the Death Star's core, Antilles destroys the power regulator on the core's north tower, while Calrissian destroys the core itself. He later appears at the victory celebration at the Ewok village on Endor.

Antilles appears, once again played by Denis Lawson, in the final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. He is seen manning a gun turret on the Millennium Falcon during the battle between the Resistance and the Sith Eternal, shortly after the death of his stepson Snap. Lawson had previously been asked to appear as Wedge Antilles in The Force Awakens, in the narrative role the character Poe Dameron was ultimately created for, but declined due to scheduling conflicts.

Antilles is not seen on screen in the spinoff film Rogue One, but his voice is briefly heard over the intercom in the Rebel base on Yavin 4. He was intentionally omitted from the film's climactic battle in order to avoid a continuity error with the first Star Wars film, which takes place immediately after Rogue One. In that film, he utters the phrase "Look at the size of that thing!" which would have made less sense if he had already seen the Death Star at Scarif.

Television
In the television series Star Wars Rebels, Wedge Antilles is voiced by Nathan Kress. He first appeared in the episode The Antilles Extraction, the fourth episode of the third season. The episode establishes Antilles's canon backstory as an Imperial TIE fighter pilot who with the help of Sabine Wren defected from the Empire, and joined the Rebel Alliance. Antilles later appeared in the episode "Double Agent Droid," the nineteenth episode of the third season, and again in both parts of the third-season finale Zero Hour, the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes, respectively. Antilles' last appearance in Rebels was in the first part of "In the Name of the Rebellion", the third episode of the fourth season.

Novels
Wedge Antilles is featured in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig, consisting of the novels Aftermath (2015), Life Debt (2016), and Empire's End (2017). In this series, Antilles establishes a new unit called Phantom Squadron, which sees action on the planets Kashyyyk and Jakku. Following the Battle of Jakku, which ends the Galactic Civil War, Antilles relocates to Hosnian Prime, where he serves as a flight instructor.

Antilles makes a brief appearance in Claudia Gray's 2015 novel Star Wars: Lost Stars, in which he recruits Thane Kyrell, one of the novel's protagonists, into the Rebel Alliance.

Antilles later moves to the planet Akiva where he retires with Norra Wexley. The two appear in the 2019 novel Star Wars: Resistance Reborn where they join a Resistance mission to save some political prisoners on Corellia. He is the stepfather of Resistance fighter pilot Snap Wexley, played in the sequel trilogy by Greg Grunberg.

Legends
In April 2014, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded by Lucasfilm as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise.

Wedge Antilles appears in the 1983 Marvel Star Wars comic "Hoth Stuff!", in which it is revealed that he went missing during the Battle of Hoth. Aboard his ship, Luke and Leia listen to his log tape recounting how he survived the Imperial invasion by hiding with Janson in the AT-AT Luke took down. They were prevented from contacting the Rebellion from orbiting TIE fighters and had to face wampas and other dangers. Janson was eventually killed by scavengers; Antilles then stole one of their ships to escape the planet and contact the Rebellion. He suddenly appears outside one of the windows, after working on the ship from space. Leia also states that he and Luke grew up together on Tatooine, which Antilles seems to confirm in his log by mentioning a girlfriend he had there.

Star Wars Legends literature explains that Antilles' parents were killed when their starship-refueling depot exploded. He piloted a freighter before joining the Rebel Alliance as a starfighter pilot.

Antilles is the lead character in most of the Star Wars: X-Wing novels by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston, set in the Star Wars expanded universe. Several Dark Horse Comics series focus on Antilles and Rogue Squadron, and the character also appears in other expanded universe works including The New Jedi Order and Legacy of the Force novels. Antilles is one of two main player characters in the Rogue Squadron video game series (Luke Skywalker is the other), and Antilles appears as a minor character in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, helping the player during one mission. He is also a playable character in Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.

In popular culture

 * IGN named Antilles the 24th greatest Star Wars character of all time, claiming "Wedge Antilles may be the most important ancillary character in the Star Wars universe".
 * Antilles was portrayed by three voice actors in the Star Wars radio series from National Public Radio: Meshach Taylor in A New Hope, Don Scardino in The Empire Strikes Back, and Jon Matthews in Return of the Jedi.

title: Wedge Antilles


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Princess Leia

Princess Leia Organa is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. Introduced in the original Star Wars film in 1977, Leia is a princess of the planet Alderaan, a member of the Imperial Senate, and an agent of the Rebel Alliance. She thwarts the Sith Lord Darth Vader and helps bring about the destruction of the Empire's superweapon, the Death Star. In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Leia commands a Rebel base and evades Vader as she falls in love with the smuggler Han Solo. In Return of the Jedi (1983), she helps to rescue Han from the crime lord Jabba the Hutt, and is revealed to be Vader's daughter and the twin sister of Luke Skywalker. Leia is portrayed by Carrie Fisher in the original film trilogy and the sequel trilogy.

The 2005 prequel film Revenge of the Sith reveals that Leia's mother is Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, who dies after childbirth. Her father is Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi who falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader. After her mother's death, Leia is adopted by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and his wife, Queen Breha. In the sequel trilogy, Leia is a founder and General of the Resistance, which fights against the First Order. She and Han have a son named Ben Solo, who turned to the dark side and became the First Order warlord Kylo Ren. In The Rise of Skywalker (2019), it is revealed that Leia was trained as a Jedi by Luke sometime after the events of Return of the Jedi. Leia is now the mentor of Rey, the last remaining Jedi. Leia dies towards the end of the film but returns as a Force spirit alongside Luke.

One of the more popular Star Wars characters, Leia has been called a 1980s icon, a feminist hero and model for other adventure heroines. She has appeared in many derivative works and merchandising, including the now-noncanonical Star Wars Expanded Universe, and has been referenced or parodied in several TV shows and films. Her "cinnamon bun" hairstyle from Star Wars (1977) and metal bikini from Return of the Jedi have become cultural icons. Fisher was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress for Star Wars and Return of the Jedi. She also received Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, the latter being a posthumous nomination.

Creation and casting
Leia was created by Star Wars creator George Lucas, who in 1999 explained his early development of the main characters: "The first [version] talked about a princess and an old general. The second version involved a father, his son, and his daughter; the daughter was the heroine of the film. Now the daughter has become Luke, Mark Hamill's character. There was also the story of two brothers where I transformed one of them into a sister. The older brother was imprisoned, and the young sister had to rescue him and bring him back to their dad."

The character Princess Leia went through various changes as George Lucas wrote and refined the Star Wars screenplay. In one early draft, she is the spoiled teenage daughter of King Kayos and Queen Breha of Aquilae. In a later version, she is Luke's cousin and the daughter of Owen Lars and his wife Beru. A subsequent story synopsis establishes her as Leia Antilles, the child of Bail Antilles from the peaceful world of Organa Major. In the fourth draft, she is Leia Organa of Alderaan, which is how she appears in the finished film.

Fisher was 19 when she was cast as Princess Leia, with actresses including Amy Irving, Cindy Williams and Jodie Foster also up for the role. In 2014, InkTank reported that the extended list of "more than two dozen actresses" who had auditioned for Leia included Glenn Close, Farrah Fawcett, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sigourney Weaver, Cybill Shepherd, Jane Seymour, Anjelica Huston, Kim Basinger, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Meryl Streep,  and Terri Nunn.

In his early story development for The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas intended for Luke to have a twin sister—not Leia—who would be the focus of another episode. Following the production of Empire, Lucas was burnt out and decided not to make his planned sequel trilogy. Needing to explain the identity of the other potential Jedi mentioned by Yoda, Lucas decided that Leia would be revealed as Luke's twin.

In the second draft of the Return of the Jedi screenplay, Obi-Wan tells Luke he has a twin sister. She and their mother were "sent to the protection of friends in a distant system. The mother died shortly thereafter, and Luke's sister was adopted by Ben's friends, the governor of Alderaan and his wife." Fisher explained in 1983: "Leia's real father left her mother when she was pregnant, so her mother married this King Organa. I was adopted and grew up set apart from other people because I was a princess."

Character
Anthony Breznican of Entertainment Weekly describes Leia as a "diplomat, spy, warrior, undercover agent". Mark Edlitz calls her "a smart, feisty, brave diplomat and warrior" in The Huffington Post. Fisher told Rolling Stone in 1983:"There are a lot of people who don't like my character in these movies; they think I'm some kind of space bitch. She has no friends, no family; her planet was blown up in seconds ... so all she has is a cause. From the first film [Star Wars], she was just a soldier, front line and center. The only way they knew to make the character strong was to make her angry. In Return of the Jedi, she gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate."

She said in 2014: "I would rather have played Han Solo. When I first read the script I thought that's the part to be, always wry and sardonic. He's always that. I feel like a lot of the time Leia's either worried or pissed or, thank God, sort of snarky. But I'm much more worried and pissed than Han Solo ever was, and those aren't fun things to play ... I had a lot of fun killing Jabba the Hutt. They asked me on the day if I wanted to have a stunt double kill Jabba. No! That's the best time I ever had as an actor. And the only reason to go into acting is if you can kill a giant monster."

Star Wars
Introduced in Star Wars (1977), Princess Leia of Alderaan is a member of the Imperial Senate and a leader in the Rebel Alliance. She is captured when Darth Vader boards her ship, demanding that she reveal the location of stolen architectural plans for the Death Star, the Galactic Empire's battle station. Before her interrogation, Leia hid the plans inside the droid R2-D2, and sent him to find one of the last remaining Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader takes Leia to the Death Star and tortures her, but she offers him no information. The Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to destroy Alderaan unless she reveals the location of the Rebel base. She provides the location of an abandoned headquarters on Dantooine, but Tarkin obliterates Alderaan anyway. Leia is rescued by Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca. They escape aboard Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon. After analyzing the Death Star schematics, the Rebels find a small weakness in the battle station, which allows Luke to destroy it with torpedoes launched from his X-wing. After the victory, Leia honors Luke, Han and Chewbacca for their heroism.In 2015, Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post praised Leia's courage and resiliency while experiencing imprisonment, torture, and the destruction of her home planet. Rosenberg also notes that while Han is almost immediately attracted to Leia, they end up in conflict because she insists on asserting command and he automatically resists, even as she proves herself to be worthy of it.

Fisher told Rolling Stone in 1980 that in the original script, when Luke and Han arrive to rescue Leia, she is unconscious, her eyes are yellow and she is hanging upside down, imagery which alludes to the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Fisher explained that the scene was changed because Chewbacca would have had to carry Leia for an extended period of time.

The Empire Strikes Back
In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Leia is commanding the Rebel base on Hoth. As Han prepares to leave the base to pay off Jabba, he tries to make Leia admit that she has romantic feelings for him. When Imperial forces arrive and assault the base, Leia leads an evacuation. She then flees with Han, Chewbacca and C-3PO in the Falcon. While hiding in an asteroid field, Leia and Han share a kiss. With the ship needing repairs, Han seeks out his old friend Lando Calrissian in Cloud City. Lando welcomes the group graciously, but has betrayed them to the Empire. He turns them over to Vader, who hopes to use them as bait to capture Luke. Leia confesses her love for Han as he is frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett. As Lando, Leia, and Chewbacca escape from Cloud City, Leia senses that Luke is in trouble, and she orders Chewbacca to turn the ship around and rescue him. He was wounded during a lightsaber duel with Vader, and used the Force to contact Leia.

Commenting on Han's attempt to pry a confession of affection out Leia, Rosenberg asserts that "Han's not wrong that if Leia doesn't figure out that she's a person with needs, she's going to burn out ... In a way, it's an early confession of love: Han's anxious about the bounty hunters who are still pursuing him ... But he would stay and give his love and support to Leia if she could just acknowledge that she needs him."

Return of the Jedi
In Return of the Jedi (1983), Leia infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine disguised as a bounty hunter. She frees Han from the carbonite, but they are both recaptured by Jabba, who chains Leia and outfits her in a metal bikini. After Luke arrives and kills Jabba's rancor, the crime lord sentences Luke, Han and Chewbacca to be fed to a Sarlacc, a deadly ground-dwelling beast. The group overpowers their captors, and Leia strangles Jabba to death with her chain. The companions then escape the planet and return to the Rebel base. Later, they travel to the forest moon of Endor to disable a shield protecting the second Death Star. There, Luke reveals to Leia that he is her twin brother and that Vader is their father. After joining forces with a tribe of Ewoks, the Rebels manage to destroy the Death Star and defeat the Empire.

Fisher told Rolling Stone in 1983, "In Return of the Jedi, [Leia] gets to be more feminine, more supportive, more affectionate. But let's not forget that these movies are basically boys' fantasies. So the other way they made her more female in this one was to have her take off her clothes." Rosenberg writes of Han and Leia: "And we know those two crazy kids are locked for life in Return of the Jedi when it turns out that Han has accepted a Generalship in the Rebellion, keeping it a secret from Leia. In A New Hope, Leia was grumbling about the quality of Han as a rescuer ... But when she finds out what Han's done, accepting a rank he once found insulting and a mission she knows to be dangerous, Leia is the first person to volunteer to join his strike team. In Star Wars, that's what love looks like: trusting your partner's commitment to the cause and respecting his strategic and technical judgment."

Revenge of the Sith
In the prequel film Revenge of the Sith (2005), Anakin Skywalker's wife Padmé Amidala is pregnant with twins near the end of the Clone Wars. After Anakin turns to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader, Padmé gives birth to Luke and Leia on Polis Massa and then dies. Leia is adopted by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan and his wife, Queen Breha.

The Force Awakens
Leia returns in The Force Awakens (2015), which takes place thirty years after the events of Return of the Jedi. She is the leader of the Resistance, an organization she formed to fight the First Order. She is also trying to find her brother Luke, who disappeared years earlier. After a battle on the planet Takodana, she reunites with Han. They discuss their son, Ben Solo, who left Jedi training and fell to the dark side of the Force, becoming the First Order warlord Kylo Ren. Leia believes Ren can be brought back from the dark side, and urges Han to bring him home. When Han encounters Ren on Starkiller Base, he asks him to abandon the First Order. Ren refuses and instead kills his father. Leia senses Han's death through the Force, and later shares a moment of grief with the scavenger Rey, who viewed Han as a father figure.

Although Leia appears as a Jedi in various Star Wars Legends works, she is not depicted that way in The Force Awakens. The film's director, J.J. Abrams, explained that Leia's decision to lead the Resistance instead of training as a Jedi was "simply a choice that she made". Nevertheless, he affirmed that Leia's strength with the Force is an intrinsic part of her character. Asked to describe Leia in the film, Fisher said she is under "a lot of pressure" and is likely feeling "somewhat defeated, tired, and pissed." Fisher was nominated for a 2016 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

The Last Jedi
Fisher returns as Leia in The Last Jedi, the 2017 sequel to The Force Awakens. When Leia's ship is attacked by the First Order, she is expelled into space, but uses the Force to pull herself back onboard. After recovering, she shoots and stuns the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, who mutinied against Vice Admiral Holdo. From his self-imposed exile on Ahch-To, Luke uses the Force to project himself to the Resistance stronghold on Crait. He reunites with Leia and apologizes for Ben's fall to the dark side. Leia says that her son is gone, but Luke assures her that nobody is ever truly gone. While Luke distracts Ren and his troops, Leia and the remaining Resistance forces escape in the Falcon. The filming of Fisher's scenes was completed shortly before her death on December 27, 2016.

The Rise of Skywalker
Following Fisher's death, Variety reported that she was slated to appear in The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Lucasfilm announced in January 2017 that it was not planning to create a digital version of Fisher for the film. In April of that year, Fisher's family granted Lucasfilm the right to use previously-filmed footage of the late actress in the film; in July, it was announced that Fisher would appear using unseen footage from The Force Awakens. Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd, who portrayed Lieutenant Connix in all three sequel trilogy films, stepped in as Leia for a brief flashback scene. Her face was digitally replaced by Fisher's, using imagery from Return of the Jedi.

In the film, Leia continues to lead the Resistance while guiding Rey in her Jedi training; a flashback presented later reveals that Leia abandoned her own Jedi instruction with Luke after seeing a vision of her son's death. While Rey and Ren duel on Kef Bir, Leia uses all of her remaining strength to reach out to Ren through the Force. Rey impales him while he is distracted, then heals his wound as Leia dies. During the climactic battle on Exegol, a transformed Ben Solo utilizes the remainder of his life force to revive a comatose Rey, then vanishes into the Force at the same time as his mother. Rey travels to the Lars homestead on Tatooine and buries the lightsabers that had belonged to Leia and Luke. As the Force spirits of her two mentors look on, Rey tells a passerby that her name is "Rey Skywalker."

Rogue One
Leia makes a brief appearance in the final scene of the 2016 film Rogue One. She receives the stolen plans for the Death Star as a lead-up to the beginning of Star Wars. Since Rogue One takes place just prior to the original trilogy, a young Leia was required. To create this effect, a computer-generated image of a young Carrie Fisher was superimposed over the face of the actress Ingvild Deila. Archival audio of Fisher was used to voice the character.

Series
A teenage Princess Leia, voiced by Julie Dolan, appears in a 2016 episode of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, which is set between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars. In the episode, Leia is sent on a secret mission for the Rebel Alliance. Executive producer Dave Filoni said of the appearance, "We thought we had an opportunity to show her learning to be a leader, experimenting with the personality that becomes the stronger more resolute character you see in A New Hope. One of the complex challenges of depicting Leia in Rebels is that we have to remind the audience that at this point she is part of the Empire. She doesn't believe in the Empire, but she is acting the part, almost a double agent." Leia also appears in the web series Forces of Destiny (2017–2018 )voiced by Shelby Young, and in the animated series Star Wars Resistance, voiced by Rachel Butera and Carolyn Hennesy.

Leia appears as a ten-year-old child in the 2022 live-action series Obi-Wan Kenobi, portrayed by Vivien Lyra Blair. Of Blair's casting, series writer Joby Harold said the show wanted an actor who would embody a young Carrie Fisher, and Eric Deggans of NPR later wrote that Blair "practically channels Carrie Fisher's subversive, wisecracking spirit".

Novels
Leia makes her first literary appearance in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, the novelization of the original 1977 film Star Wars, which was released six months before the film in November 1976. Credited to Lucas but ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, the novel was based on Lucas' screenplay. Leia later appeared in the novelizations The Empire Strikes Back (1980) by Donald F. Glut and Return of the Jedi (1983) by James Kahn. She is also a point-of-view character in the 2015 novelization of The Force Awakens by Foster.

Foster's 1978 novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye was commissioned by Lucas as the basis for a potential low-budget sequel to Star Wars should the film prove unsuccessful. In the story, Luke and Leia seek a crystal on a swampy planet and eventually face Vader in combat.

Leia appears in the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens line of novels and comics, which were introduced to connect The Force Awakens with previous films. She is featured in the young adult novel Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure (2015) by Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry, which is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and Claudia Gray's novels Star Wars: Bloodline (2016)  and Leia: Princess of Alderaan (2017). The former is set six years before The Force Awakens, while the latter features a 16-year-old Leia before the events of A New Hope. She also leads in Beth Revis' Star Wars: The Princess and the Scoundrel which is set immediately right after Return of the Jedi.

Comics
Leia appears in the limited series Star Wars: Princess Leia (2015), which takes place immediately after Star Wars. She is also featured in the four-part series Star Wars: Shattered Empire (2015), set immediately after Return of the Jedi. Princess Leia depicts Leia training in martial arts on Alderaan and explores her reaction to the destruction of the planet, while Shattered Empire portrays her as a skilled pilot who undertakes a dangerous mission alongside Poe Dameron's mother. Leia also appears in Star Wars #12.

Other
Leia appears briefly in the 1978 television film The Star Wars Holiday Special as a leader and administrator of the new Rebel Alliance base. She and C-3PO contact Chewbacca's wife Mallatobuck for assistance in finding Chewbacca and Han. Leia also appears in the animated segment at a different base in an asteroid field, and at the Life Day ceremony at the end of the film. Fisher also appeared in and hosted the November 18, 1978, episode of Saturday Night Live that aired one day after the special.

Star Wars Legends
Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company in 2012, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced between 1977 and 2014 were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise. In the Legends narrative universe, Leia battles remnants of the Empire after the events of Return of the Jedi. She becomes the chief of state of the New Republic and a Jedi Master, and raises three children with Han: Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo.

Novels
The 1991 New York Times bestselling novel Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn began what would become a large collection of works set before, between and especially after the original films.

Post-Return of the Jedi
The bestselling Thrawn trilogy (1991–93) by Timothy Zahn begins five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. In Heir to the Empire (1991), Leia is married to Han and three months pregnant with twins. Noghri commandos repeatedly attempt to kidnap her as part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's plan to restore the Empire and crush the New Republic. In Dark Force Rising (1992), Leia realizes that Darth Vader and the Empire deceived the Noghri to secure their allegiance, and by revealing the truth she turns the alien race to the side of the New Republic. At one point, she remembers her adoptive parents on Alderaan, implying that the "mother" she discussed with Luke on Endor was Queen Breha. In The Last Command (1993), Leia gives birth to the twins Jaina and Jacen Solo on Coruscant during Thrawn's siege.

Leia, now the Chief of State of the New Republic, is a minor character in the Jedi Academy trilogy (1994) by Kevin J. Anderson, set after the Thrawn trilogy. Next in the timeline is the Callista trilogy: Children of the Jedi (1995) by Barbara Hambly, Darksaber (1995) by Anderson and Planet of Twilight (1997) by Hambly. In The Crystal Star (1994) by Vonda McIntyre, young Jacen, Jaina and their three-year-old brother Anakin are kidnapped in a plot to restore the Empire, but are rescued by Leia and Chewbacca. Leia struggles with the responsibilities of her position in The Black Fleet Crisis trilogy (1996) by Michael P. Kube-McDowell. In The New Rebellion (1996) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, she avoids an assassination attempt and then aids in the defeat of the Dark Jedi Kueller, whom she shoots to death. The Corellian trilogy (1995) by Roger MacBride Allen finds Han and Leia swept up in a civil war while visiting his homeworld of Corellia with their children. In the two Hand of Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn (1997's Specter of the Past and 1998's Vision of the Future), Leia tries to hold the New Republic together as Moff Disra conspires for its volatile factions to destroy each other. Leia appears periodically in the Young Jedi Knights series (1995–98) by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. The 14-volume young adult fiction series covers the Jedi training of Jacen and Jaina.

In The Truce at Bakura (1993) by Kathy Tyers, set one day after the ending of Return of the Jedi, Leia establishes New Alderaan, a sanctuary for the destroyed planet's surviving inhabitants. The spirit of Anakin Skywalker appears to Leia and pleads for her forgiveness, but she angrily banishes him. The six-volume Jedi Prince series (1992–93) by Paul Davids and Hollace Davids, later contradicted by other novels, is set within a year after Return of the Jedi. In The Glove of Darth Vader (1992), the self-proclaimed son of the defeated Emperor Palpatine, Trioculus, seeks the titular glove to cement himself as the new Emperor. Entranced by Leia's beauty in The Lost City of the Jedi (1992), Trioculus vows to make her his queen. He captures her in Zorba the Hutt's Revenge (1992), but Jabba the Hutt's vengeful father, Zorba, offers to trade his own prisoner Ken—Palpatine's real grandson whom Trioculus has been seeking—for Leia, his son's killer. But Leia and Ken are rescued and Trioculus is frozen in carbonate by Zorba. Mission from Mount Yoda (1993) finds Ken's father Triclops alive and willing to join the Rebels against the Empire. Leia, now engaged to Han, is captured by Zorba in Queen of the Empire (1993). Trioculus is revived and seizes Leia before Zorba can kill her. Leia is rescued and replaced with a lookalike droid decoy, which kills Trioculus. In Prophets of the Dark Side (1993), Leia looks forward to her wedding to Han and has a vision of their two children. Matthew Stover's 2008 standalone novel Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor picks up the story soon after, as Luke, Leia and the Rebels fight the Sith Lord Shadowspawn.

In The Courtship of Princess Leia (1994) by Dave Wolverton, set immediately before the Thrawn trilogy, Leia is presented with an advantageous political marriage to Prince Isolder of the planet Hapes. A jealous Han abducts Leia and takes her to the planet Dathomir; Luke and Isolder follow, and there they all find the hidden forces of the Imperial warlord Zsinj. Defeating him, Han and Leia marry. The 2003 novels A Forest Apart and Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning are set immediately after The Courtship of Princess Leia. The newly married Leia fears that any children she has may succumb to the dark side like her father. During an adventure on Tatooine in Tatooine Ghost, she discovers the diary of her grandmother Shmi Skywalker and meets some of young Anakin's childhood friends. When she learns of Anakin's childhood as a slave and the traumatic death of his mother, Leia learns to forgive her father.

Works set between films
In Shadows of the Empire (1996) by Steve Perry, the only Star Wars novel set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Leia is searching for Boba Fett to find a captive Han. She is bewitched by the crime lord Prince Xizor using pheromones, but Chewbacca helps her elude the seduction.

Allegiance (2007) and Choices of One (2011) by Timothy Zahn are set between Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and feature Leia and her cohorts seeking new allies for their Rebellion against the Empire. Razor's Edge (2013) by Martha Wells and Honor Among Thieves (2014) by James S. A. Corey take place in the same time period and also chronicle the adventures of Leia and Han.

New Jedi Order
In the New Jedi Order series (1999–2003), Leia resigns as Chief of State, and on the heels of her warnings before the Senate, the alien Yuuzhan Vong invade the galaxy. They destroy system after system and defeat both the Jedi and the New Republic forces in countless battles. Chewbacca dies in Vector Prime (1999) by R.A. Salvatore, which sends Han into a deep depression that causes a rift between him and Leia. They reunite after Leia is gravely wounded at the Battle of Duro in Kathy Tyers' Balance Point (2000). She is targeted by a deadly Voxyn slayer in Troy Dennings' Star By Star (2001), and though she manages to evade death, her son Anakin is later killed during a mission to prevent more Voxyn from being cloned. The Vong are finally defeated in The Unifying Force (2003) by James Luceno.

In Denning's The Dark Nest trilogy (2005), Leia, Han, and several Jedi become involved in an escalating border dispute between the Chiss and the insidious insectoid Killiks, and Leia makes a bitter enemy in the Twi'lek warrior Alema Rar. In The Joiner King (2005), Leia asks Saba Sebatyne to train her as a Jedi Knight. R2-D2 malfunctions in The Unseen Queen (2005) and shows Luke a holoclip of his father Anakin and a pregnant woman, whom Luke learns is his and Leia's biological mother, Padmé Amidala. Anakin and Padmé are discussing a dream of Anakin's in which Padmé dies in childbirth; later, Luke and Leia watch a clip in which Padmé is talking to Obi-Wan Kenobi about Anakin. Tenel Ka, Queen Mother of the Hapes Consortium, has a daughter, Allana, secretly fathered by Jacen. In The Swarm War (2005), Luke and Leia view holoclips of their mother's death, and Leia is promoted to Jedi Knight.

Legacy of the Force
The bestselling Legacy of the Force series (2006–08) chronicles the crossover of Han and Leia's son Jacen to the dark side of the Force while the Jedi, Solos, and Skywalkers fight against his growing power. In Betrayal (2006) by Aaron Allston, Jacen turns to the dark side, believing that it is the only way to save the galaxy from the chaos brewing among the member systems of the Galactic Alliance. Jacen realizes in Bloodlines (2006) by Karen Traviss that the Sith discipline will require him to kill one of his loved ones, which he decides is an acceptable sacrifice to save the galaxy. In Troy Denning's Tempest (2006), Han and Leia thwart the assassination of Tenel Ka and Allana but become caught up in a Corellian conspiracy. They are almost killed when the Millennium Falcon is attacked by a Star Destroyer controlled by an increasingly powerful Jacen—who knows that his parents are on board. With Han injured, Leia and Lando further investigate the Corellians in Aaron Allston's Exile (2007), but Alema reappears to exact her vengeance on Leia. Sacrifice (2007) by Karen Traviss finds Leia and Han on the run, hunted by Jacen as traitors to the Galactic Alliance. He kills Luke's wife Mara Jade as his final sacrifice to become Darth Caedus, the new ruler of the Sith. In Inferno (2007) by Troy Denning, Han and Leia are faced with the reality that their son, now Joint Chief of State, is the enemy. Leia attempts unsuccessfully to manipulate Jacen in Aaron Allston's Fury (2007) so that the Jedi can both thwart him and neutralize Alema. Finally, in Invincible (2008) by Troy Denning, Jaina kills Jacen in a lightsaber duel. At Tenel Ka's request, Leia and Han adopt Allana, disguised with the name "Amelia" to protect her from any future vengeance against Cadeus or the Hapes Consortium. Multiple novels in the series made The New York Times Best Seller list.

The nine-volume Fate of the Jedi series (2009–12) by Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, and Christie Golden finds Han and Leia become caught up in the intensifying conflict between the Galactic Alliance and the Jedi. In the wake of Darth Cadeus' death, the now-peaceful Galactic Alliance harbors a growing mistrust toward the Jedi, and the situation is worsened by a Force-induced psychosis that begins afflicting individual Jedi, sending them on violent rampages.

In Millennium Falcon (2008) by James Luceno, set between Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, a mysterious device hidden inside the eponymous spacecraft sends Han, Leia and Allana on an adventure to investigate the ship's past before it came into Han's possession. Troy Denning's Crucible (2013), set after Fate of the Jedi and the last novel to date in the Star Wars Legends chronology, reunites Leia, Han and Luke with Lando as they aid him to thwart a vast criminal enterprise threatening his asteroid mineral refinery in the Chilean Rift nebula.

Comics
Leia's youth is depicted in the Star Wars Tales story The Princess Leia Diaries. Leia develops a disdain for the Empire, as well as a conflict with Tarkin. She discovers and decides to support the Rebellion.

During the events of the comic series Dark Empire (1991–92), Palpatine has been resurrected in a clone body. As part of his plan to restore the Empire, he seduces Luke to the dark side of the Force. Leia resists Palpatine's attempts to turn her as well, and escapes with the Jedi Holocron, an artifact he needs to secure his power. When Luke pursues her, Leia manages to turn him back. Luke and Leia then fight Palpatine with the light side of the Force, destroying him with his own Force-generated storm. In Dark Empire II (1994–95), Leia gives birth to a third child, Anakin Solo. Palpatine is reborn in a rapidly deteriorating clone body in Empire's End (1995), and seeks to possess the body of the infant Anakin.

Video games
Leia is a playable character in Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Battlefront II, Disney Infinity 3.0, and many Lego Star Wars video games.

Cultural impact
Princess Leia has been called a 1980s icon, a feminist hero and "an exemplary personification of female empowerment". In 2008, Leia was selected by Empire magazine as the 89th greatest film character of all time, and in 2010 UGO Networks listed Leia as one of the best heroes of all time.

The character has been referenced or parodied in several TV shows and films, and is celebrated in cosplay. In 2013, cartoonist Jeffrey Brown published the bestselling Star Wars: Vader's Little Princess, a comic strip-style book featuring Darth Vader and a young Leia in humorous father-daughter situations.

Leia has been used in a wide range of Star Wars merchandise. In her one-woman show Wishful Drinking, Fisher called the Princess Leia Pez dispenser one of the "merchandising horrors" of the series. In a 2011 interview, Fisher said:"I signed away my likeness for free. In those days, there was no such thing as a 'likeness' ... There was no merchandising tied to movies. No one could have known the extent of the franchise. Not that I don't think I'm cute or anything, but when I looked in the mirror, I didn't think I was signing away anything of value. Lately I feel like I'm Minnie Mouse—the identity of Princess Leia so eclipses any other identity that I've ever had."

After the 2012 acquisition of LucasFilm by the Walt Disney Company, the Disney Store stated in May 2014 that the company had "no plans for Leia products". After public criticism, Disney told Time in June 2014 that it would be releasing several Leia products. Funko has since produced several versions of Leia (at least one for each film) in their POP! line of 4.5-inch vinyl figures in the Japanese super deformed style. Hasbro is set to release an action figure of Leia as she appears in the Star Wars Rebels animated series.

"Cinnamon buns" hairstyle
Leia's unique hairdo in Star Wars—arranged in two large buns, one on each side of her head—has come to be known as the "doughnut" or "cinnamon buns" hairstyle, and is iconic of the character and series. When asked in a 2002 interview about the origins of Leia's hairstyle, Lucas said he was aiming for "a kind of Southwestern Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look" from "turn-of-the-century Mexico." An exhibit at the Denver Art Museum credited a particular revolutionary—later identified as Clara de la Rocha—as an inspiration for the coiffure. The museum stated that Leia's hair arrangement was also influenced by a hairstyle worn by indigenous Hopi women of North America. Empire suggested that Leia's hairdo was based on that of Queen Fria, a character from the 1930s Flash Gordon comic serial. Lucas had originally wanted to film an adaptation of Flash Gordon, but unable to obtain the rights, he began developing an original project which would become Star Wars.

A February 1978 cover story for the British teen magazine Jackie included step-by-step instructions on how to replicate Leia's hair buns. In the 1978 short film parody Hardware Wars, Princess Anne-Droid has actual cinnamon buns on the side of her head. Miss Piggy of The Muppet Show copied the hairdo in a Star Wars-themed episode of the series in February 1980. In the 1987 Mel Brooks comedy film Spaceballs, Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) appears to have the hairstyle, which is soon revealed to in fact be a large pair of headphones. In the parody film Thumb Wars, the role of Leia was filled by a character named Princess Bunhead, who has two cinnamon rolls for hair. In 2015, Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd's character in the horror-comedy TV series Scream Queens, a rich and disaffected sorority girl known as Chanel No. 3, wears earmuffs in every scene as an homage to Fisher's iconic Leia hairstyle. Lourd also has a cameo in The Force Awakens (2015) in which she wears Leia's distinctive hair buns.

Feminist analysis
Leia has been the subject of feminist analysis. Mark Edlitz wrote for The Huffington Post in 2010 that "Leia is an exemplary personification of female empowerment." David Bushman, television curator at the Paley Center for Media, said in 2012, "From the male perspective ... Princess Leia was a very creditable character for her time—not perfect, but certainly defiant, assertive, and strong." Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post wrote in 2015, "Leia wasn't just the first great heroine of science fiction and fantasy to capture my imagination. She was one of the first characters I encountered whose power came from her political conviction and acumen." In her 2007 article "Feminism and the Force: Empowerment and Disillusionment in a Galaxy Far, Far Away", Diana Dominguez cited Leia as a welcome change from the previous portrayals of women in film and TV. She wrote:

"Here was a woman who could play like and with the boys, but who didn't have to become one of the boys and who could, if and when she wanted to, show she liked the boys, a woman who is outspoken, unashamed, and, most importantly, unpunished for being so. She isn't a flirty sex-pot, tossing her hair around seductively to distract the enemy ... She doesn't play the role of 'Maternal caretaker', although she does display caring and compassion, or 'the sweet innocent damsel' who stands passively by while the men do all the work, but does step aside to let them do what they're good at when it is wise to do so ... Leia is a hero without losing her gendered status; she does not have to play the cute, helpless sex kitten or become sexless and androgynous to get what she wants. She can be strong, sassy, outspoken, bossy, and bitchy, and still be respected and seen as feminine."

Rosenberg writes that, though at first Luke is an apolitical innocent in search of adventure and Han is a detached opportunist in search of money, both are "influenced by Leia's passion [and] take their places as full participants in the Rebellion". She notes, "Everyone else eventually comes around to Leia's view of the world." Leia herself, singularly dedicated to her political movement against the Empire, "finds a partner in Han, acknowledging that personal happiness can help her sustain her commitment to building a better galactic order". Rosenberg cites "Leia's willingness to see the best in him, and Han's desire to live up to her belief in him" as a foundation of their relationship, also pointing out his attempts to make her recognize that she has needs like anyone else and should acknowledge that she needs him.

In their 2012 essay "Lightsabers, Political Arenas, and Marriages", Ray Merlock and Kathy Merlock Jackson cite Leia as the successor of earlier science fiction heroines Wilma Deering of Buck Rogers and Dale Arden of Flash Gordon, and the embodiment of "a new stage in the ongoing presentation of the fairy-tale princess in jeopardy". Writing that "after Leia, no longer would princesses be passive and salvaged simply with a kiss," they note the reflection of the character in later Disney Princess animated films and in woman warriors such as Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise and Xena of the adventure TV series Xena: Warrior Princess. A. O. Scott of The New York Times described Leia as "a foremother of Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen and of countless latter-day Disney princesses. She also foretold the recent, somewhat belated feminist turn in the Star Wars cycle itself".

Mark Hamill described Fisher's performance as: "She was effortlessly feminist, you know? She wasn't some shrinking violet that needed a guy to come to rescue her. In fact, she made Han and Luke look like chumps. She was anything but what I expected. I mean, I sort of thought, "Well, she's 19, that's barely out of high school." And in many ways, she was a lot older and wiser than I was."

Fisher herself described Leia as a "huge" feminist icon, dismissing the suggestion that the character was ever a "damsel in distress". Fisher said of Leia, "She bossed them around. I don't know what your idea of distress is, but that wasn't it! And I wasn't some babe running through the galaxy with my tits bouncing around. So I wasn't threatening to women". She added, "I like Princess Leia. I like how she was feisty. I like how she killed Jabba the Hutt". "I think I am Princess Leia, and Princess Leia is me. It's like a Möbius striptease."

Metal bikini
Leia's slave costume when she is held captive by Jabba the Hutt at the beginning of Return of the Jedi—made of brass and dubbed Leia's "Metal Bikini" or "Gold Bikini"—immediately made the character (and Fisher) a "generational sex symbol" celebrated by pin-up posters, and later merchandising and cosplay. Philip Chien of Wired wrote in 2006, "There's no doubt that the sight of Carrie Fisher in the gold sci-fi swimsuit was burned into the sweaty subconscious of a generation of fanboys hitting puberty in the spring of 1983." Fisher said in 2015, "I am not a sex symbol, so that's an opinion of someone. I don’t share that".

Allie Townsend of Time wrote in 2011 that the so-called "slave Leia" outfit has gained a cult following of its own. Rosenberg noted that "the costume has become culturally iconic in a way that has slipped loose from the context of the scenes in which Leia wore it and the things she does after she is forced into the outfit." Acknowledging the opinion of some that the "slave Leia" iconography tarnishes the character's position as "feminist hero", Rosenberg argued: "Leia may be captive in these scenes, but she's not exactly a compliant fantasy. Instead, she's biding her time for the moment when she can put that fury into action, carrying out a carefully laid plan to rescue her lover. And when that moment comes, the bikini doesn't condemn Leia to passivity. She rises, and uses the very chains that bind her to strangle the creature who tried to take away her power by turning her into a sex object."

Science fiction filmmaker Letia Clouston concurred, saying "Sci-fi has had a long history of strong female characters. Yes, Princess Leia was in a gold bikini, but she was also the one who single-handedly killed Jabba. When you take into account movies and TV shows like Terminator, Aliens, Battlestar Galactica, and even video games like Metroid, you can see sci-fi has consistently promoted the strength of women more than any other genre." Peter W. Lee argues that the bikini connotes Leia's hopelessness and helplessness, but even in that demeaning costume she retains her dignity and remains an icon of feminism. Noah Berlatsky argued in The Guardian for a deeper significance to the costume beyond its function as a sex symbol, stating that the outfit represents an important stage in Princess Leia's complicated relationship with Han Solo.

The outfit was created by Aggie Guerard Rodgers and Nilo Rodis-Jamero, costume designers for Return of the Jedi. According to Rodgers, the design was inspired by the work of fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. Author Rikke Schubart suggested the design was also inspired by the work of science fiction illustrator Earle K. Bergey. The outfit featured a sculpted metal string bikini top, paired with a bottom consisting of sculpted metal plates in the front and back covering a red silk loincloth. Fisher wore leather boots, serpentine jewelry and a collar and chain that bound her to her captor, which she ultimately uses to strangle him. Multiple versions of the metal bikini were created to accommodate different scenes in the film, including metal pieces by sculptor Richard Miller for scenes in which Fisher remained still, and a rubber version she and stuntwoman Tracy Eddon could wear comfortably while performing stunts. The costume designers made a mold of Fisher's torso so it could be designed to a custom fit. Fisher quipped that the bikini was "what supermodels will eventually wear in the seventh ring of hell."

Fisher posed in the costume for a 1983 cover story in Rolling Stone. The costume has been parodied in various TV series and films, including Friends (1996), Family Guy (2000) and Fanboys (2009). Yvonne Strahovski's appearance wearing the costume in Chuck (2009) prompted Wizard to rank her No. 24 of the 25 sexiest women on TV in 2008. IGN gave Strahovski the top honor in a similar list. Comedian Amy Schumer wore a replica of the outfit for the August 2015 cover of GQ.

An original rubber version of the costume sold for $96,000 at auction in 2015. Despite its iconic status among many fans of the franchise, the slave Leia outfit has sometimes incited controversy. In response to a 2015 news segment in which parents described difficulties explaining toys featuring the costume (including a chain around Leia's neck) to their children. Fisher called Disney's decision "stupid," saying, "Tell [the kids] that a giant slug captured me and forced me to wear that stupid outfit, and then I killed him because I didn't like it."

title: Princess Leia


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Lando Calrissian

Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He is introduced in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as a friend of Han Solo and the administrator of Cloud City on the planet Bespin. Prior to the events of the film, Lando made a career as a gambler, con artist, playboy, mining engineer, and businessman, and was the owner of the Millennium Falcon until losing the ship to Han in a bet. In the film, when Cloud City is threatened by the Galactic Empire, Lando reluctantly betrays Han to Darth Vader, but later helps Han's friends escape from the Empire. In Return of the Jedi (1983), after becoming a general in the Rebel Alliance, Lando helps rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt and leads the attack on the second Death Star.

Lando is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the original trilogy, as well as the sequel film The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Donald Glover portrays a younger Lando in the standalone film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), which depicts the beginning of his relationship with Han. Lando also appears in novels, comics and video games.

Williams was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lando in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Glover's performance in Solo was also well received, being hailed as one of the film's highlights. A further film starring Glover as the character, tentatively titled Lando, is currently in development.

Development
When writing The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas planned to introduce a gambler-type character, which developed into Lando Calrissian. Wanting the character to be a foil to the "rough" swashbuckler Han Solo (possibly an old friend), Lucas envisioned Lando as a cool con man with the elegance of James Bond and wit of Star Trek 's Spock. He would support the Empire, thinking that he could outsmart the Imperials before coming to see the Rebellion as a more worthy cause.

Lucas thought Lando could superficially look like a normal human but—drawing from the Clone Wars mentioned in the original Star Wars film—be a clone from a ruling clan of others just like him (causing Princess Leia to distrust him). His faction, from one of many planets of clone countries, was probably "partly responsible for the war". Lucas saw the character as a Rudolph Valentino character, "almost too perfect looking" due to his genes being manipulated in the cloning process.

Actor Yaphet Kotto was an early choice for the role, but he chose to appear in the prison drama Brubaker instead. Billy Dee Williams later stated that he built the character around two features he found interesting; the cape and the Armenian name "Calrissian". The original teaser trailer for The Empire Strikes Back introduced the character as Landau Calrissian.

Lando's cane in The Rise of Skywalker (2019) was designed to resemble Cloud City. It is inscribed with the name "Baron Lando Calrissian".

Portrayal
In 2018, The Verge noted that despite Han Solo's first name being written as "Han" and Lucas also pronouncing the name as "Han" off-screen, within the films most characters, including Luke Skywalker, pronounce it as "Hahn". The Verge also noted how Williams's Lando seems to be the only character to pronounce it as "Han" like Lucas, and that when, in The Empire Strikes Back, Lando is choked by Chewbacca for betraying Han, Lando causes most other characters to shift to "Han". In Solo: A Star Wars Story, Glover decided to deliberately use "Han" instead of "Hahn" in order to honor the character's trait.

Ahead of the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, co-writer Jonathan Kasdan suggested that Lando is pansexual and stated, "There's a fluidity to [ Donald Glover] and Billy Dee's [portrayal of Lando's] sexuality ... 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." When asked about a scene where L3-37 jokes about Lando's being flirtatious towards Han, writer Lawrence Kasdan said, "That is her personality. Maybe it means something, maybe it doesn't." When asked about Lando's pansexuality, Donald Glover stated, "How can you not be pansexual in space? There's so many things to have sex with." In recent years, Marvel LGBT pride-themed series of comic covers have featured Lando, canonizing the character's LGBT status.

Film
Lando is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and by Donald Glover in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

Original trilogy
Lando Calrissian first appears in The Empire Strikes Back as the administrator of Cloud City, an old friend of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and the previous owner of Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon. When Han, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) arrive at Cloud City, Lando welcomes them as guests of honor – only to betray them to Darth Vader (portrayed by David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), who plans to use them as bait to ensnare Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Lando had reluctantly agreed to betray Han and company after Vader threatened to put Cloud City under the Galactic Empire's control if he refused. Lando allows Vader to freeze Han in carbonite and give him to bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch); when Vader takes Leia and Chewbacca prisoner, however, Lando's conscience gets the better of him, and in the ensuing evacuation of Cloud City he helps them escape in the Falcon. He later assists in rescuing Luke from the underside of Cloud City. Afterwards, he promises to help find Han.

In Return of the Jedi, Lando goes undercover to help Luke rescue Han from crime lord Jabba the Hutt. During a battle with Jabba's thugs, Han saves Lando from being devoured by the sarlacc; Lando then helps Han and the others destroy Jabba's barge. For his heroics, he is made a general in the Rebel Alliance. Lando then takes the pilot chair in his old ship, the Millennium Falcon, and leads the attack on the second Death Star. He leads the Rebel strike on the battle station, and personally destroys its power core, causing the station to explode. He then joins the other Rebels on Endor in celebrating their victory and the end of the Empire.

Sequel trilogy
Lando did not appear in the first film of the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens (2015). According to Williams, the reason Lando did not return may have been that he did not fit into the storyline. His absence from the casting announcement caused the displeasure of some fans.

Lando was also absent from The Last Jedi (2017). During the early development of the film, director Rian Johnson briefly considered bringing back Lando as the codebreaker that Resistance members Finn (John Boyega) and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) seek in the coastal city of Canto Bight, but Lando was finally written out of the film's script, with the codebreaker role ultimately going to Benicio del Toro's character DJ.

Lando finally reappeared in 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, marking one of the longest intervals between portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history. In the backstory to the film, in the years of peace after the Galactic Civil War, Lando attempted to start a family, and had a daughter, who was kidnapped by unknown culprits when she was two years old. In time, it became clear that the First Order was behind both her abduction and those of other children of former Rebel leaders, who had become stormtroopers, thereby leaving them reluctant to order any action against the fledgling organisation, lest they unwittingly kill their own children. After the tragedy of losing his daughter and his failure in a quest with Luke Skywalker to find answers about the growing darkness in the Force, Lando left his wife and settled on the desert planet of Pasaana, adopting a life of solitude.

Lando returns in The Rise of Skywalker on Pasaana, appearing jovial and guiding Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn, and Chewbacca toward a clue for the whereabouts of the Sith wayfinder. Poe asks Lando to aid the Resistance, but Lando refuses, saying he does not fly anymore, but sends his regards to Leia. Lando reappears much later in the film, upon Leia's death, and he tells a grieving Poe that he, Luke, Leia, and Han were similarly unprepared when they were fighting the Empire, but that they were able to succeed because they had each other. This inspires Poe to launch an offensive against the Sith Eternal forces, including the Final Order, with Lando traveling the galaxy to recruit Rebel veterans and other supporters of the Resistance's cause to help in the final battle. Just as the Resistance appears most overwhelmed in the battle, Lando, Chewbacca, and Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) arrive in the Millennium Falcon alongside a massive fleet of Resistance sympathizers, allies, and veterans, and they help to win the battle and the war. At the end of the film, as the galaxy is celebrating the Resistance's victory against Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and the Sith Eternal, Jannah (Naomi Ackie), a former stormtrooper, approaches Lando and says she does not know where she is from; he tells her that they will find out together.

Solo: A Star Wars Story
Donald Glover portrays a younger Lando in the 2018 standalone film Solo: A Star Wars Story, which takes place roughly thirteen years before The Empire Strikes Back. Glover had the opportunity to speak with Billy Dee Williams and seek his input. "He said, 'Just be charming'. Which is the best advice."

In the film, Lando is introduced as a gambler and semi-retired smuggler who owns a ship fast enough for Han and his associates to use in stealing a load of raw starship fuel. Han tries to win the ship (the Millennium Falcon) from him in a game of sabacc, but Lando cheats and cleans Han out. However, Lando agrees to join the team in exchange for a percentage of the profits from the mission. During the heist and subsequent escape, Lando is injured and his droid co-pilot L3-37 is irreparably damaged, but Han brings the Falcon to safety with help from L3's navigational database after he hotwires it into the ship's computer. Lando later takes the Falcon and abandons the team, but Han tracks him down and wins it from him in another game of sabacc, having stolen the card Lando had up his sleeve to let him cheat.

In December 2020, Disney announced a Lando streaming series for Disney+, with Justin Simien as showrunner. In July 2023, it was reported that Donald Glover was attached to reprise his role from Solo and would co-write the project with his brother Stephen, who that September announced that the project was now planned as a feature film.

Television series
Billy Dee Williams returned to the role in the Star Wars Rebels episodes "Idiot's Array" and "The Siege of Lothal".

In "Idiot's Array", Lando wins Chopper (voiced by Dave Filoni), the repair droid of the crew of the Ghost, in a game of sabacc, forcing the crew to assist him with a dangerous smuggling run to get their droid back. The crew become Lando's reluctant business partners following the ordeal, leading to their first encounter with the crime boss Azmorigan (voiced by James Hong). In "The Siege of Lothal", the crew of the Ghost approach Lando for help in getting off of Lothal, which is under Imperial occupation. He is also mentioned on occasion in various other episodes, becoming one of a couple of aliases employed by Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray).

Video games
Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando Calrissian in various games, including as a playable character in Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront II.

Comics
Lando Calrissian appears in Marvel Comics' Lando (2015), a five-issue miniseries set shortly before the original trilogy. Lando has a brief appearance in the miniseries Shattered Empire (2015), which takes place after Return of the Jedi. Lando is also featured in the comic Lando: Double or Nothing (2018), a five-issue miniseries set just before Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The 2020 relaunch of Marvel's Star Wars series, picking up at the tail end of The Empire Strikes Back, reveals that Lando returns to Cloud City to retrieve Lobot and help Luke look for his lightsaber.

Books
The novel Star Wars: Last Shot reveals that between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Lando is considering settling down with a Twi'lek girlfriend.

Star Wars Legends
Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company in 2012, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced between 1977 and 2014 were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise. The Legends works comprise a separate narrative universe.

Lando is featured in the Star Wars comic book series released by Marvel Comics. In the series, he has a crime lord nemesis named Drebble, and Lando frequently made use of his foil's name as a cover identity so that any animosity he generates while using the alias will be brought against the real Drebble, not Lando himself. This eventually backfires when "Drebble's" exploits are recognized by the Rebellion and Lando—being the only person who knows of him—has to present the real Drebble with an award for his own activities.

Lando is a supporting character in Legends novels that took place after Return of the Jedi commonly depicted Lando as getting involved in a variety of entrepreneurial schemes, including Nomad City in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy and the Kessel Spice Mines in the works of Kevin J. Anderson. During The Corellian Trilogy, Lando goes on a galaxy-wide hunt for a rich wife, ultimately marrying Tendra Risant. With his in-laws' money and his entrepreneurial abilities, he opens a mining facility on the Outer Rim planet of Dubrillion. In The New Jedi Order and beyond, Lando continues being a valuable ally and friend to the Skywalker/Solo family. In Fury, the seventh novel of the Legacy of the Force series, Lando announces to Han and Leia that he and Tendra are having a child.

Kevin J. Anderson stated that Lucasfilm toyed with the idea of killing off Lando, noting the character had run his course for Expanded Universe authors in the 1990s.

The Lando Calrissian Adventures
The Lando Calrissian Adventures is a 1983 trilogy of science fiction novels by L. Neil Smith. Set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, the novels chronicle Lando's smuggling days before the events of the original Star Wars trilogy. The series has been described as "space pulp", and highlights the differences between Lando and Han Solo. The books were released in July, October, and December 1983, and were the first Star Wars books released since The Han Solo Adventures (1979–1980); both trilogies were originally published by Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books. They were also among the last novels in the franchise until Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy was released in the early 1990s. The series is set 3–2 years before the original Star Wars film, and is brought into chronological context with the rest of the Expanded Universe in Rebel Dawn  (1998), the final book of A. C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy.

For the duration of the trilogy, Lando is accompanied by a droid named Vuffi Raa. The novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story makes reference to the events of the first book as a previous adventure of Lando's, which he recounts while composing his autobiographical "Calrissian Chronicles". He further estimates that it will be the first in a trilogy of his adventures.

Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu is the first novel in Smith's Lando Calrissian trilogy, published by Del Rey on 1 July 1983. It is noted as being more of a psychedelic fantasy novel than hard science fiction. The book begins shortly after Lando wins the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc, as well as a robot which must be picked up in the Rafa system. Upon the planet of Rafa IV, convicts are made to harvest mind-draining "life-crystals" which prolong the life of elite citizens. Lando is arrested and brought before the colony's corrupt governor and the sorcerer Rokur Gepta, who will let him keep his life and liberty if he can locate the legendary Mindharp of the ancient and long-lost Sharu civilization. The Mindharp is revealed to be kept inside a multidimensional pyramid with mind-altering properties, which provides a strange adventure for the daring Lando.

Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon is the second novel in the trilogy, published on 1 October 1983. After selling a load of life-crystals, and accompanied by his droid Vuffi Raa, Lando attempts a career as an honest freighter captain. After some bad luck, he is soon nostalgic for his old trade. Fortunately, he is invited to a sabacc game on Oseon celebrating an event called Flamewind, but is followed by Rokur Gepta. After an explosion rocks the hull of the Falcon, they safely land. During the sabacc game, Lando is distracted by the apparent sabotage of his ship, and is assaulted. He comes under trial for having a weapon, illegal on the planet. He is offered a smuggling deal as an alternative to execution.

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka is the third novel, published on 1 December 1983. Nearly a year after Lando and Vuffi Raa have left the Oseon system, while traveling in deep space they encounter Lehesu, a vacuum-breathing creature. Able to establish communication, they find out he is also on an adventure away from his home, the ThonBoka nebula. A month later, Lando and Raa receive word that ThonBoka is under attack from the Imperial Centrality Navy. Lehesu's exploration of the Centrality apparently provoked the attack on his species. Lando and Raa rush to assist their friend. The Imperial blockade makes Lando nervous, but he cons his way through the fleet. When the Millennium Falcon strays from its course and is ordered to return, they dump explosives and go into hyperspace to fake the Falcon 's destruction. Meanwhile, Rokur Gepta forms an alliance with a confederate squadron. Lando and Raa reunite with Lehesu, and hear of a negotiation attempt which only results in an outbreak of battle. The vacuum-breathing creatures use their projection and hyperspace abilities to fool the Imperial Navy, which fires on its allied ships. As Vuffi Raa pilots the Falcon, Lando engages the enemy in battle from the quad-gun in one of their last adventures before Raa is resummoned to his original programming.

Video games
Williams reprised his role as Lando in Legends videogame Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, where he assists Kyle Katarn through the second half of the Nar Shaadaa levels and helps him reach Bespin. In Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Calrissian is an unlockable playable character, having the characteristic of being able to kiss Leia's hand if she is nearby. Lando is also a playable character as a hero character for the Rebels in the video games Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Reception
Author Adilufu Nama wrote in 2008 that Lando "offered a new benchmark in the status of black representation in science fiction cinema". According to Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post, Lando is a "fascinating and fraught part of the Star Wars legacy and the conversation around race in science fiction". She added that "Lando's the only character in Star Wars with a truly comfortable sense of style." On his portrayal, she wrote, "One of Williams's accomplishments in Empire and Return of the Jedi is how much he [feels] like an old-fashioned movie star in a futuristic setting without making the performance seem incongruous."

In 2015, Billy Dee Williams publicly admitted that he received backlash from children who were angered by Lando's betrayal of Han in The Empire Strikes Back. Williams felt that the situation would have been different if Lando had been played by a white actor. Williams wrote that "Lando is not black or white, he's just Lando. Above and beyond the arguments or discussions of bygone eras, he is of the future." He further stated,

"The one thing I always find myself explaining is that Lando didn't betray Han and his friends. He was dealing, as best he could, with a situation that was presented to him by the Empire upon their arrival. One of the most amusing moments for me was that Lando decided to challenge Darth Vader (for about three seconds) until he realized that maybe he'd better back down and figure out another way to save his friends."

Writing for The Verge, Megan Farokhmanesh criticized Jonathan Kasdan's assertion that Lando is pansexual as "a piss-poor shot at representation", and argued that Kasdan was conflating pansexuality with promiscuity. Farokhmanesh compared the assertion to J. K. Rowling's statement that her character Albus Dumbledore is gay, despite no Harry Potter media depicting this. In 2019, Billy Dee Williams criticized the decision as well, blaming Solo 's underperformance at the box office on its focus on this "topical" issue.

title: Lando Calrissian