ST Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie join the cast of Episode VII.

I know this is somewhat shoe-horned, but could it be possible that Lupita has some relation to Lando? I know that Billy Dee Williams is not returning (or isn't to my knowledge) but it would be nice to have some reference to that classic character.

Lupita could be used for many roles. If they play her to her strength, she could work as a new, strong "damsel" like Leia. She's feisty and I think she could hold her own in a blaster fight. I think she would best work on the side of the New Republic (or whatever the "good" side is named).

Christie could be so many different things. I agree that it would be marvelous if she were a villain. In the prequel trilogy, I would've seen her as a Jedi Master who sits in the background on Coruscant. But I think J.J. released her to let us know she's going to be a fairly big player. I feel that if she's not the villian, then she'll at least be the direct pawn of it.

 

I am more interested human, aliens don't fill the seats.

 

I feel like they're saving BDW for VIII, to parallel his entrance in ESB. Also, if they were casting a relative of his, they would have probably picked an actress who looked similar to him.

Yeah, although she'd be cool as a villainess, the role of a heroine seems like it'd be a better fit.

I see her as a strong character, a fighter, but she could be good or bad and be equally believable.

 

My comment was directed towards not having diversity discussions in this thread.


Edit: in response to Skaddix

 

Ah sorry makes total sense then.

 

Let's up the celeb stalking

Anyone know the whereabouts of either of our two new lovely ladies?

Any word on them being in London right now?

 

Lupita was in NYC last night for an award show. I'll have to look into Gwen....

 

I don't think of a relation to Lando, or Ventress, or a Sith, or a bounty hunter. The only thing that comes to mind when I think of her casting is some kind of kind demure woman somehow related to John Boyega's character. I haven't seen her movies, just interviews and the off-camera stuff. I like that I haven't seen anything with any of these new people in it (except a few minutes of Attack of the Block) because I don't really know what to expect, although eventually I'll get 12 Years A Slave whenever I stop reshuffling my Netflix queue.

 

Well I don't mind Ventress returning or Gleeson turning out to be a Kenobi. But I would prefer with unrelated people. The galaxy is a big place and everything happens to a small group of people with intertwined relationships. Yeah I know, will of the Force but still. Luke and Leia are siblings. Ridley and Driver might play siblings. If Boyega and Nyong'o are also Siblings, I'll loose my temper.

 

Why did they announce this so late, I wonder? I suppose the producers could have still been in negotiation with the actors' agents...it just seems a bit odd to me. And now they announce their casting after shooting has already started! They weren't at the table read, are we sure they will be important parts of the cast?

I was pretty happy with the idea of mostly unknowns in the cast so this Lupita announcement is kind of bittersweet to me. I would have rather had another unknown female or just Gwen.

There's too much fanfare/gushing surrounding Lupita. There's something that I don't like about that. But I'll try to be optimistic. I just know that a movie can certainly suffer from too many characters. And this is starting to seem like too many characters...

 

Well they announced it the day after a Game of Thrones episode and I think it was one of the highest viewed episodes yet so no doubt its intentional. But they could have announced it after any season 4 episode tbh

 

With so many characters I think they have an eye towards developing future spin off movies with one or two of them. Not the first one or two spin off movies, but down the line.

 

That could be true, for Gwen's case anyway. I'm impressed with the choice to cast her. Game of Thrones is definitely a popular show right now but at the end of the day she's still more or less an unknown when it comes to film. I'm just more confused and less impressed with the decision to cast Lupita.

 

They can appear on TV too, voice overs, tv movies, and tv series. Don't forget Sif from the Thor movies made an appearance on SHIELD.

 

I'm becoming increasingly worried that they're leaving Billy Dee Williams out in the cold.

 

To be fair, Ventress looked and acted like a grown up woman during TCW...

Hey! I adore her. Can we keep bashing out of this thread?

 

Good add-ons for both! It feels like a LOT of characters for a two hour film though. Which of these are going to be "Valorum'd?"

 

Well, Lupita apparently told ET that she only found out a week ago. So I think they needed the extra time to make their decisions, and then announced the actresses as soon as they were ready.

I doubt either will be the main character, but barring that, who knows? We'll get some idea from how much time they need to spend in London to film their scenes.

Like someone pointed out earlier, TPM had 13 speaking roles, VII has 15 announced cast so far... so not far off. And sorry the Lupita casting is rubbing you the wrong way. Don't mean to gush, but I'm hyped about it.

 

Hi banned racist user sock. Bye banned racist user sock

 

Anakin
Obi-Wan
Qui-Gon
Shmi
Padme
Sidious
Maul
Jar-Jar
Boss Nass
Palpatine
Vallorum
Gunray
Watto (that's already 13, and there were lots more?)

 

*sigh* I really hope these "How dare they have more than 1 black person in this movie" arguments end. I hate it when racism/sexism/ect invades boards.
Anywho, We need another Gwen video

and a Princess Lupita pic

 

You forgot
-C-3PO
-Captain Panaka
-Yoda
-Mace Windu
-Ki Adi Mundi

 

Oh I know I forgot many, I was just curious how we had somehow arrived at 13 as the number of speaking roles (we're still missing Captain Tarpals, Corde, Sebulba, Panaka, etc., etc.)

 

IMDB should give you most or all of the speaking roles.