The last several months have been up and down with movie rumors for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII to be directed by J.J. Abrams. Among the most popular and seemingly solid rumors, is that several key cast members from the Original Trilogy will be reappearing in some scope. These, of course, are Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, and Harrison Ford as Han Solo. But what about everyone’s favorite gambling scoundrel, Lando Calrissian, as played by Billy Dee Williams?

According to a Facebook message, Billy Dee Williams states that he has not up till now been contacted by anyone. In the recent flurry of rumors, it was said that George Lucas had met with Hamill, Fisher, Ford, and Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine) over several lunch meetings in 2012 to chew over the Sequel Trilogy. Williams, it seems, was not a part of these meetings, which would indicate that there may be no plans to have Lando even make a cameo in the upcoming trilogy.

In response, Billy Dee Williams has called upon his fans to tell Disney and Lucasfilm if they would like to see Lando return. Here’s the full message:

I am in the dark with the actual plans that Disney and Lucasfilm have for the future of the Star Wars universe. I have heard the same rumors that the fans heard, that a new trilogy is being made, that spin-offs may be made, that we all [Mark, Carrie, Harrison and myself] are going to be reprising our roles in these projects.

At this point in time, nothing has been confirmed about my participation and I have signed no contracts. I assure you that I would absolutely love to reprise my role of Lando Calrissian. He’s a character that I took great pride in creating on screen and have continued to be a part of when providing his voice for video games, the new Star Wars Detours cartoon and for various episodes of Robot Chicken, among other projects.

It’s a lot of fun to keep Lando alive and I am eager to do it again, on film, when I get the call. I thank all the fans out there for their continued support and I hope to get the call from Disney and Lucasfilm real soon, until then, may the force be with us all!

~ Billy Dee Williams

The post has generated some passionate comments from Billy Dee’s fans, as well as several blog posts across the interwebtubes calling for Lando to be in the Sequel Trilogy. There’s also a Facebook Page generating support for the return of Calrissian as well.

The moderators of the Billy Dee Williams Facebook page also included:

The best way to ensure that Billy Dee Williams will be in the new film is to FB, TWITTER, BLOG and tell Disney and Lucasfilm that you want to see LANDO again! Hopefully JJ will read the wishes and write in LANDO!

So, do you want Lando back in the Sequel Trilogy? Make sure you make some commotion about it on the interwebs to help Billy Dee Williams!

[Source: Facebook]

Video: Billy Dee Williams in the Ewok Gospel