Star Wars Episode VII: First Cast Announcement

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.

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.

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. 

Thoughts on J.J. Abrams as director of Star Wars Episode 7

Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars back in October 2012, and then announced that a new trilogy of films were coming out, everyone was anxious to see who Disney would hire to helm the first film, Episode VII, which is set to come out in 2015. Well, Disney has found their guy as it has just been announced that director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8) will be directing the film. This is quite the news considering how much Abrams has been involved with the other major space-based film franchise out there in Star Trek. Of course, some are not too happy about that because Abrams has been involved with Trek, but as someone who is a huge fan of Abrams' work, I couldn't be any more excited about this news and what it means for the Star Wars franchise.



First off, let me start by saying that I didn't really grow up with Star Wars. Sure, I saw all of the movies when I was a kid, but it wasn't actually until last year's re-release of 'The Phantom Menace' when I actually saw one of these films in the theater. As for my thoughts on the films, I am one of those who is a big fan of the original films. Of course by original, I mean the first trilogy of films that came out from 1977 to 1983 and were not altered in anyway (seriously Lucas, put 'those' films on Blu-Ray, damn it!). It's one of those rare trilogies where each of the films are superb in their own way. Its biggest strength is in its writing, especially when it comes to character development as each of the main characters has a story arc which follows them through all of the movies. 'A New Hope' was the one that started it all, of course, 'The Empire Strikes Back' was one of the greatest sequels of all time with one of the best twists in film history, and I feel that 'Return of the Jedi' is actually kind of underrated mainly due to the final fight between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader that has so much at stake.



As for those prequels that everyone loves to hate, I don't think that they are bad films but compared to the original trilogy, they obviously don't stand a chance. 'The Phantom Menace' suffered from a weak script and had so many characters in it that there was no clear main character. That problem was fixed with 'Attack of the Clones', but we still had to suffer through some bad writing and a really, really bland romance. 'Revenge of the Sith' was a huge improvement over the last two films except for, once again, weak writing and dialogue. When you look at it, it was the writing that killed these prequels. The characters were rather bland, the dialogue was too cheesy, and these films were clearly more focused on the visuals than actually telling a story.



But back to Abrams and Episode VII. When the news first broke out that this film was happening, I was waiting to see who would be directing the film. After all, with a project as big as this, sometimes it all depends on who is the director. I mean, imagine if someone like Paul W.S. Anderson or Brett Ratner was directing this film. I would be very worried because they're not good directors. J.J. Abrams, on the other hand, is one of the best directors working today. Even though his directorial career up to this point has only consisted of four films (one of which being the upcoming 'Star Trek: Into Darkness'), he has yet to make a bad film. Mission Impossible III was the first in the series to actually focus more on the team than lead Tom Cruise, his Star Trek reboot appealed to both fans and non-fans of the series, and Super 8 was one of the best original films of the last decade.



The fact that he did direct a Star Trek film and is now directing a Star Wars film is just mind-blowing to me. In all my years, I believed that we would never see something like this happening but this is real and it's going to happen. Of course, some people aren't too happy because of Abrams' involvement with Star Trek, but this is a really good thing when you think about it because of his work on Star Trek. He took a franchise that was, in a way, on life support and resurrected it and you know what, Star Wars is kind of on that level after the whole controversy of the Special Editions and the much-maligned prequels. With Abrams on board, I believe that he can resurrect Star Wars to what it was back in the late 70's and early 80's.



But now of course, the big question remains, what is this new trilogy of films actually going to be about? I for one don't want to see another trilogy revolving solely around the Skywalker family. Sure, if you have to include them, feel free to do so but I want to see the filmmakers explore more into this universe and to not just copy what was done before; Perhaps they could do a film based around the bounty hunters of this galaxy far, far away, or maybe even one from the view of the Empire. But most importantly, Abrams, don't let Lucas change a damn thing about your film like he did his own films. Make sure that when we watch it, we are watching your own vision of Star Wars the way you intend it to be. I eagerly await this new Star Wars movie, especially now that Abrams is directing it. Mr. Abrams, May the Force be With You, and Live Long and Prosper!

 

(That's right, I went there!)