It's time to give up on one Star Wars dream: Lando Calrissian is not going to appear in the upcoming film.

Many fans had hoped the smuggler played by Billy Dee Williams would make a triumphant return in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," but the film's writer and director, Rian Johnson, has officially put the kibosh on the idea. Speaking to EW, he addressed Williams's involvement -- or rather, lack thereof -- in decisive terms.

"I don't want fans to get their hopes up," Johnson said. "He's not in the film."

The writer-director never planned to bring Lando back, either. Johnson said that "it was never really something that came up" and there was not "a place in the story" for him to return. As much as fans might not want to hear it, that logic is hard to argue. Plus, at least we can safely say he won't be killed off, unlike another smuggler we know.

Although Lando won't appear in "The Last Jedi," we'll see him in another adventure soon. As a friend of Han Solo (originally played by Harrison Ford), he'll appear in the character's spin-off film, which stars Aldren Ehrenreich as the Millennium Falcon captain in his early smuggling days. The younger version of Lando will be played by Donald Glover.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" opens Dec. 15.

[via: EW]