Every Star Wars fan knows Han Solo's suave frenemy, Landonis Balthazar Calrissian, better known simply as Lando Calrissian. He has lived many lives -- he was a gambler, smuggler, card player, the Baron Administrator of Cloud City, and eventually a general in the Rebel Alliance. Lando is easily an icon in the Star Wars universe. However, earlier drafts of Lando would have produced a much different version of the character.
In The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas wanted to introduce a character from Han Solo's past to reveal more of the background of the sarcastic smuggler. He settled on a character named Lando Kadar. In one of the first story conferences for his sequel film, Lucas brought in his ideas for who Lando Kadar might be -- a trader on a Wookie planet, a James Bond-type character, or a clone from the Clone Wars.
Lucas soon realized that his first idea -- Lando as a trader from a Wookie planet -- wasn't exactly what he was going for. He realized he wanted Lando to be somewhat of a contrast to Han Solo. Han is more of an unpolished, crude, rough-and-tumble character, and Lucas wanted Lando to be more refined, slick, and charming. Here is where Lucas began to lean more towards the James Bond-esque version of Lando Kadar: perfect, suave, cunning, and oozing with swagger. Out of Lucas' three ideas, this seems to be the one that eventually stuck.
Lucas could have stopped there, but he instead took a hard turn. He decided Lando Kadar should be a clone who survived from the Clone Wars, and toyed with the idea of Lando looking human, but not quite being human. Lucas had a whole "Lando the Clone" backstory planned out. Early scripts reveal that clone Lando's great-grandfather wanted many sons, so he produced them using cells from his own body. His great-grandfather's sister did the same thing, producing daughters in the same manner. The film takes place many years after the Clone Wars and Lando says that there are not many of his kind left, so they try not to attract attention. He also states that he feels truly alone now that he has been exposed to the world and sees that not everyone is a clone.
The idea of replacing Lando Calrissian with clone Lando Kadar is very interesting, and would have taken the series in quite a different direction. It would have introduced the history of the Clone Wars to the audience much earlier than the series eventually did, and the concept of clones would have been starkly different than what was eventually produced in the prequels. It's likely that Lucas wasn't ready to delve into the Clone Wars quite yet. It's also likely that he believed Lando would be more of a compelling character without the complicated clone backstory.
Eventually, Lucas eliminated the idea of Lando being a clone. Now, the Star Wars universe has its charming Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City, complete with his fantastic cape and charm -- and devoid of any clone status.