Speculation OFFICIAL Episode VII/Spin-Off Casting Rumors and Speculation Thread

Also, it should be said a Skywalker doesn't have to be the main protagonist in a Star Wars movie. In The Phantom Menace, the main character is NOT Anakin Skywalker. The main character is Qui Gon Jinn. The overarching central character of the prequels is Anakin. But not necessarily the main character in either Episode 1(or hell even 2).

 

I like your thinking. This could be Luke, albeit perhaps not as a protagonist. Although, Qui-Gon was the elder protagonist in TPM, as you correctly pointed out above.

 

Simon Pegg as Scotty in Trek09: This is exciting!

 

I think there could be a duality thing about the younger Skywalker dealing with adulthood and the older Skywalker dealing with old age.

If episodes 7-9 is in fact about the end of the Skywalker saga. Episode 9 will most certainly deal with the idea of mortality and death.

 

Hope the casting of Gosling is true, cause he is a fantastic actor and mostly it would be ironic as well

 

*trying very hard not to explode with excitement*

I have nothing to say on the latest casting rumors because I've never seen either guy act....but the fact we're getting so close to CEII and D23 is enough to make me go That article a few pages back with Mark Hamill is making me REALLY excited...

Oh my gosh. Is this actually happening???

 

However, I'm inclined, at this early point, to think that the main protagonist will be a female Skywalker, not another male, particularly if the theme is about mortality and death. The female represents the other half of that duality...life.
I think that Lucas had an angle in the ST treatments, with Luke being an alter-ego since day one, to write about an older Jedi grappling with legacy and mortality. Certainly passing on what has been learned.
I also think that toying with a female protagonist has been part of a story Lucas has wanted to tell since he changed Luke as a character from male to female and back again in the earlier SW drafts. Could be factors here.
But there is no question that an older Son and an aging Father would play nicely, even with a female main protagonist, on the aforementioned themes of mortality and death.

EDIT: If we do the father/son theme again, it has the risk, at the very least, at being redundant as the OT, PT (Jango and Boba) and the Indiana Jones films have explored this theme ad infinitum. The ST needs, IMHO, this introduction of a female protagonist. You tread on old waters and risk sinking the ship.

 

Perhaps, but if your dealing with the concept of life or "new beginnings" than it makes more sense, imo, for the female character to be a Solo. That is one bloodlines story ending and merging with another, Another branch to the the tree.

As I posted above, the movie could be dealing with the main co lead Solo's, with the Skywalker as the anchoring lead.

 

Not really, because we have never really seen a functional father/son relationship in Star Wars at all. We have seen surrogate/brother dynamic. A dysfunctional father. But we haven't seen a functional father/son dynamic. It also doesn't, necessarily, have to be the main focus.

 

Im absoloutly in for Ryan Gosling. Great Actor and his performance in Drive...
And i think he's one of the few actors who can pull off an Han Solo like role... the look, the attitude, he has it.

The thing with Afron reminds me on DiCaprio when he was in Casting Rumors for AotC. Back in hte Day everyone yells about him, but now i think the most of us would be fine with DiCaprio in a SW Movie. He grows very well as an Actor.
Maybe its the same thing with Afron. Give him a chance to jump off this silly Highschool garbage...

 

True, but we're not dealing with just 'new beginnings', but with endings as well, particularly if your telling chapter 7 in a 9 chapter novel.

 

This is what I had in mind.

 

Thats my point, your transitioning out of the Skywalker narrative while opening a new narrative with the Solo characters.

 

Here's one that'll bake your noodle: 2 of the protagonists, male and female, are Luke's kids. No Solo kids cuz Han & Leia broke up after the Ewok bender.

Mind = blown.

("Han and Leia never got married" is a George Lucas quote! Ahhhh!)

 

There's a reason for that and aside for the comic angle, it's not dramatic, and would not be a suitable dynamic for a story centered around a father and son. I think we've seen enough of it in SW and to revisit at the VERY LEAST, is uninspired.

 

Not necessarily, if your dealing with the idea of personal identity. That is, the younger Skywalker living in the shadow of his legendary father. Thats drama right there. Or hell you can make it about birthright where the younger Skywalker doesn't want to be a Jedi and tries to forge his own path.

There is A LOT of narrative angles that you can do within a father/son dynamic and make it interesting. Again, it doesn't have to be the main focus either.

 

So, what is your preference? Skywalker male/female lead protagonist? It might depend on the kind of antagonist our hero faces.

 

Preference? Don't really have one. Since I think your main leads are going to be male/female. I would assume with an 30+ year old Skywalker. The concentration would be on a male/female Solo dynamic. If the rumor is true of course.

I mean these movies are ensembles. Does it really matter?

 

Then why are we discussing this!

No, it doesn't matter.

 

Because we are trying to figure out the placement of a 30 year old Skywalker in the context of an ensemble.

Its also because we are pathetic because we are overanalyzing a children's space fantasy. Well, at least I am...

Not to mention, these are just rumors and we are blindly speculating....

 

Thoughts on this: Latino Review are fairly reliable and the scoop doesn't say they been cast, just that they've been in, as I'm sure have/ will many others. Goes without saying that this could end up panning out at all. That said, both Gosling and Efron (I'm going of the Orson Welles flick on this) are good actors and I can see them going well in Star Wars. I also like the idea of Gosling as a slightly older Skywalker and while the rumour is unsure what role Efron could be up for (maybe it's a Solo) - I love the idea of Skywalker brothers (or even an older Skywalker and younger Solo siblings). Could be lots of fun.

 

Didn't we have the legendary father theme in the OT already?

 

I don't think it was as prevalent in the OT as we like to think.
Sure Luke did have an idealization of his father, but to me that was never as dynamic as was the overall journey Luke went through. Having a Skywalker child whose father is actually alive...and is Luke Skywalker...cause at this point in Episode VII Luke's been a Jedi most likely for several decades, is a different thing all together.

Just my two cents

 

Completely agree. Dynamic could play out v differently, while still exploring familiar themes.