Official Info CASTING NEWS (Open at your own risk!)

I like the fact that von Sydow also appeared in Flash Gordon. His casting is a nice nod to Lucas' inspiration for the OT.

 

Confirmed cast:

Gwendoline Christie

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Harrison Ford

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Han Solo
Carrie Fisher

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Leia
Domhnall Gleeson

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Mark Hamill

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Luke Skywalker
Andy Serkis

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Lupita Nyong'o

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Oscar Isaac

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Adam Driver

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Peter Mayhew

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Chewbacca
John Boyega

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Max von Sydow

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Kenny Baker

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R2-D2
Daisy Ridley

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Anthony Daniels

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C-3PO

 

Mark Hamill has confirmed that he will have a beard for EpVII. He has also posed with a lightsaber for Disney publicity photos. But I gotta say, he holds the lightsaber very........awkwardly. Could this be an indication that he has had no recent lightsaber training?

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=119908

 

Merging this into the ONLY thread in the NSA forum that is allowed to have casting news in it. Even though this is humor, it contains the actual casting line-up.

 

There has been no information given on the stunt co-ordinator and crew involved in Episode VII, save for two stunt performers.

I'll grant you this in keeping with the idea to play everything close to the chest but I have to admit to being nervous that Abrams is reverting to the "old men lightsabre fights" of the OT.

I'm not criticising te OT there, this is what Lucas called them but I want to see Mark Hamill in a fight that at least equals a Prequel duel.

That photo has me concerned too.

At the same time though, Abrams didn't hold back on the action sequences in Star Trek - especially Into Darkness and the chase through San Francisco.

Hopefully, Hamill's (and Ridley's, etc. - or whoever) light sabre training is just one of the better kept secrets.

Does anyone know how much training Hamill did for TESB and ROTJ?

 

You know, this is kind of a big cast for a Star Wars movie- assuming that the actors they hired play somewhat significant roles and not bit parts.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. All signs point to him playing the main protagonist in the series.

 

Who do we think the bad guys/girls are going to be? If we continue as in previous trilogies, we'll see probably 2 main villains per film. Von Sydow is the obvious choice to carry on the Cushing/Lee tradition. I worry if he is the central villain. He is 85 years old, and we're years away from finishing this trilogy. I can't imagine he is the main ST villain. Driver? Boyega? Nyong'o? Someone unannounced? Or a Serkis CGI villain?

I'm rather stuck on the Plagueis idea. Immortality has been an important theme in both trilogies, in the Clone Wars, and in the now-defunct "Darth Plagueis" and "Book of Sith" novels, which were both among the last of the novels to come out before the canon wipe. I think we'll learn more in the ST. During production of TESB, Lucas said that Palpatine has the ability to come back from the dead like Kenobi, so that may also be a possibility.

So if it is Plagueis, you could cast him as an old man - Von Sydow. You could cast him as a CGI Muun (or any other species at this point) using Serkis with Von Sydow's voice. You could even go "full immortality" by having a young, ageless Driver play the ancient Sith.

 

Yes, Abercrombie was great as both Palps and Sidious. What's-his-name does a good job with Sidious, but his Palps is terrible.

Kennedy and Abrams aren't dumb, so I have to think that Von Sydow does not play a crucial role throughout the ST. Maybe his character doesn't last past this film.

 

I take it as an indication that someone probably shoved a lightsaber into his hand and then quickly and awkwardly asked him to pose for a half dozen cameras at once while not posing in such a way that he would be pointing a weapon at the almighty mouse.

 

I love the new cast. Don't know much about Ridley, but I trust JJ on this one.

 

I'm not sure I'd call it gender-equal casting, considering it's four women to eleven men (when you don't count the droids). But on the other hand I am pretty happy to see a little more POC in the cast. Hopefully they won't be regulated to cliched parts like Lando, or made into automatic villains like so many POC in movies and tv are.

 

So does the recent Youtube video from Star Wars with Warwick Davis get to be included in this, EHT?

 

It's on starwars.com and the official Star Wars YouTube channel, so we considered it official.
And to answer your question, yes.

 

By the way, for reference here is the updated list of confirmed cast members:

John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Lupita Nyong'o, Gwendoline Christie, Pip Andersen, Crystal Clarke, and Warwick Davis

 

Other than the ones marked blue, I hope I don't know what any of these people are playing, maybe even after the trailer gets shown next year. I'm not even sure if I want to speculate if Warwick Davis will play an Ewok. Wouldn't that just be a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

 

I wonder... we talk so much about offspring of han, leia, and then Luke.
But could Warwick be playing the offspring of a certain Wookiee we know very well?

 

I just got back from reading all the negative comments on YouTube about the trailer. There were way more negative than positive comments, too.. But, man, people are really confused about the Clone Trooper/Storm Trooper storyline.

 

I try to avoid reading the Youtube comments for any video on there... they make me loose faith in humanity.

 

I've guessed they are comments mostly by people who know the prequels better, and are unfamiliar with the whole imperial academy thing...

 

Looking forward to this movie.

 

So what do folks think about legacy characters? I know from the moment the cast was announced last year I hoped/imagined that Ridley would be Han and Leia's daughter. I like to think that she is Force sensitive but somehow reluctant to take on the responsibilities of being a Jedi, until something causes her to stand up for what is right.

I just like the idea that rather than focusing on another Skywalker, the saga can follow the lineage through Leia for a bit.

I won't be crushed if this isn't the case. It's just the quick fanfic that popped in my head when I saw her picture in the cast announcement.