Billy Dee Williams Supports Lizzo And Jack Black Appearing In ‘The Mandalorian’

Actor Billy Dee Williams is in full support of Lizzo and Jack Black appearing in the latest episode of the "Star Wars" Disney+ series "The Mandalorian."

Although "Back to the Future" alum Christopher Lloyd also played a key role in the episode, his appearance didn't seem to draw the same debate that the two musical icons did. Even so, Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando Calrissian in the original trilogy, has no problem with their cameo appearance.

In the sixth episode of the show’s third season, Din Djarin, Grogu, and Bo-Katan Kryze travel to the independent planet of Plazir-15, which is having a problem with their droids. The independent planet is run by the Duchess (Lizzo) and Captain Bombardier (Jack Black), who used to be a former Imperial officer that participated in the New Republic amnesty program and the war ended.

Social media exploded to see both Lizzo and Jack Black looking and sounding mostly like themselves in the episode. At one point, Grogu even uses the Force to help the Dutchess win a game of space bocce before she pulls out a real metal sword and knights him.

It seems the 86-year-old actor watched the recent episode of "The Mandalorian" before a recent interview with TMZ but had no problem with the scenes. In fact, he believes that bringing in big pop culture icons like Lizzo and Jack Black will actually help reach a younger Star Wars audience.

“It’s a good idea. There’s no question about it,” Williams said. “I mean, the whole idea is to try to bring it to the […] younger people today. And so you have to use, you know, utilize the people who are popular today.”

“I mean, it’s a business,” Williams continued. “You can’t obviously forget about that part of it. But, you know, you’re always trying to build an audience. Building an audience means that you have to incorporate or bring in the sensibilities of a younger group of people.”

“So you have to, you know, use these wonderfully talented people who are very popular today to attract new audiences,” he concluded.

Believe it or not, Lizzo is actually such a big Star Wars fan that she actually dressed up like Grogu for Halloween in 2021.

The day after the episode aired, she took to Twitter to share a tweet titled “How it started vs How it’s going.” The first photo shows her surrounded by Grogu merch and even wearing a knit Grogu cap. In the second photo, she is wearing her Dutchess costume while Grogu waves at the camera from behind her.

The excited musician also shared another photo captioned, "I'm in Star Wars YALL" which showed her absolutely surrounded by Grogu merchandise.

Although some fans accused her of just trying to gain popularity by appearing in a famous franchise, Lizzo took to Twitter yet again to reveal that she has been a fan of "Star Wars" since she was a child.

"As a kid my dad showed me Star Wars like a rite of passage. When I got the role of The Dutchess I cried all day. Dad I wish u were here to see this!" she tweeted. "Thanks to everyone in the Galaxy I am now part of the ever-expanding saga of the stars."

She closed off the tweet with the signature Mandalorian phrase "This is the Way" before adding the well-known "May the Force be with U."