It’s been almost a year and a half since J.J. Abrams was
first announced as the director of ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’, the first in a new
trilogy of Star Wars films produced by Disney (not counting the spin-off solo
films that they are looking to do, meaning that there will be at least one new ‘Star
Wars’ film a year) and since that time, we’ve pretty much all speculated as to
who would be in the cast, and let me tell you, there was quite a lot of
speculation. I’ve seen quite a lot of posts online with rumors that various
actors/actresses had been reading for parts and in fact, according to Saoirse
Ronan, pretty much ‘everyone’ in Hollywood was reading for roles for this film.
Aside from Ronan, other actors ‘reportedly’ testing for roles included Benedict
Cumberbatch, Gary Oldman, and Michael Fassbender, and obviously that’s just to
name a few. There were so many reports and rumors on the casting process that
it was getting to the point where it was starting to get really annoying.
But now, we finally have our cast for the next entry in the ‘Star
Wars’ saga as it was recently announced, and shown through a black and white
photo (featured above) of the cast’s first table read, who will be in the film
and overall, I have to say that it’s a pretty solid cast from top to bottom
that includes both new and returning faces. Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher,
Harrison Ford, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew will be reprising
their roles as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, C-3PO, R2-D2, and
Chewbacca respectively. And they will be joined for this film by John Boyega,
Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Daisy Ridley, and Max
von Sydow. Some of the new additions were amongst those reportedly up for
roles, like Driver, Boyega, and Issac, but some, like Ridley, von Sydow, and
Serkis, were not amongst the list of actors and actresses who were up for roles
(at least from the reports I’ve seen). And of course, there were plenty of
reports about how Hamill, Fisher, and Ford would be returning as well. With
this announcement, we can finally lay the majority of all of these casting
rumors to rest.
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| Top Row (L-R): Boyega, Ridley, Driver Bottom Row (L-R): Gleeson, von Sydow, Issac |
Now there’s not much I can say about this because as of
right now we don’t know who these new cast members are playing. This was just
an announcement stating who would be in the movie and not about ‘whom’ they
would be playing. The only one whose role has sort of been determined is Adam
Driver, who will apparently be playing a villain in the vein of Darth Vader. But
even then, we don’t know ‘who’ this villain is nor do we know who everyone else
(aside from the returning characters, of course) is for that matter. So right
now, all we can do is speculate. But as for the cast itself, I really like the
group of actors/actresses that they’ve picked to be in the film. I haven’t
really seen a lot of the films that most of these actors were in (e.g. Oscar
Issac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson), but I at least know who they are. The
only member of this cast who is a complete unknown in my book is Daisy Ridley.
Even after looking up her IMDB page, I really don’t know who she is but no
worries, because I remember reading somewhere that Abrams wanted a cast of
lesser known actors/actresses so it’ll be cool to see some new talent on
screen. And on another note, I’m fine with having the older cast members in the
film so that they can pave the way for the new cast to take over for future
films.
Now of course as I’ve said earlier, we don’t know who these
new members of the cast will be playing, but we can still speculate as to what
their roles in the film will possibly be. Reportedly the film will center
around three new leads (not Luke, Leia, and Han), and I’m guessing that those
three will most likely be Boyega, Isaac, and Ridley. Driver, as stated earlier,
will be the main villain. It does seem a bit obvious, but like a lot of people,
I’m guessing that Serkis will probably be playing a motion-capture character. I
mean, who knows, maybe he isn’t (after all, he has played some
non-motion-capture roles in the past) but I think it’s pretty likely that he
will be doing something that is motion-capture related because that’s what he’s
known for. Plus, I’m interested in seeing what kind of character he might be if
he’s doing motion-capture. As for Sydow, I’m guessing that he’ll either be A.)
A ‘sage’ character similar to Obi-Wan (as portrayed by Alec Guinness) in the
original trilogy or B.) Possibly a villain alongside Driver. Finally, with
Domhnall Gleeson, I’m not entirely sure, but I’m guessing that he’ll be a
character similar to Lando Calrissian.
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| Note: Not an official poster; I just really liked this fan-made one, even if it's just a 'Star Wars' version of the first 'Star Trek Into Darkness' poster. |
But remember, we don’t really know much yet and for all we
know, this could end up being another case like ‘The Phantom Menace’, which
also had a really nice cast (Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman,
Samuel L. Jackson, etc…) and yet look how that turned out. Now for the record,
I’m not saying that I think that this is going to be another ‘Phantom Menace’.
I want this new film trilogy to succeed and I do have a lot of faith in the
cast and crew. J.J. Abrams as the film’s director is the main reason why I’m
excited for the film as I really loved his two ‘Star Trek’ films (the first one
being one of my top 10 favorite films of all time). It’s also co-written by
Lawrence Kasdan, the writer of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, which is still the
best entry in the series. And I like these new additions to the cast, even if I
haven’t seen much of their work. It definitely feels like all of those involved
on this film know what they’re getting themselves into and are looking to make
the film as good as it possibly can. But again, we’re still more than a year
away from the film’s December release and this is just a cast announcement so
we’ll just have to wait and see. But for now, I’m very optimistic about how
this film is currently shaping up to be based on who’s involved with it in
front of and behind the camera.
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