FINALLY. We have words from the reading in London on StarWars.com. Want your cast? Of course you do.
From StarWars.com:
Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.
Director J.J. Abrams says, “We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”
Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.
All right! What are you waiting for? DISCUSS.
JOHN BOYEGA WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Okay, looking at the rest, this is pretty cool.
Moses from Attack the Block is there, Bill Weasley is there, Leland Gaunt is there. Cool stuff.
NOT HAPPY that in true Star Wars tradition, there is one chick.
What, no Lando? Was it because of that “Dancing with the Stars” routine?
I don’t know who Daisy Ridley is, but her IMDB photo makes her look a lot like Natalie Portman. My money is that she’s Leia’s daughter. Very pretty actress, and I’m looking forward to seeing her hopefully bring some Jedi skills to the screen.
Think we can pretty safely say that Daisy Ridley is Han and Leia’s kid? Nevermind that she looks the part, she’s also sitting between them at the read.
Not surprised at the lack of Lando. Williams as always been pretty grumpy on that front, adn if they did approach him, he probably asked for a looooot of money.
I have to wonder if we’ll actually see Andy Serkis, or if he’ll be playing another CG character. Personally, I’m fine either way, just curious. Have we heard anything at all?
Serkis has gotta be playing a CGI character. What’s potatoes, Jedis?
It’d be funny if they’re actually holding Lando until Episode VIII.
Man, if I was Mark Hamill I’d be getting chills all day from being in that reading. “I’m Luke Skywalker again. I’m Luke Skywalker. Still. HOLY SHIT I’M LUKE SKYWALKER!”
Man, if I was Mark Hamill I’d be getting chills all day from being in
that reading. “I’m Luke Skywalker again. I’m Luke Skywalker. Still. HOLY SHIT I’M LUKE SKYWALKER!”
Until they all get blown up in the first five minutes
@2: Well, there is more than one female cast member, since Carrie Fisher is in it too. I’m glad to see that there’s some diversity in the cast too. Boyega getting first billing implies that he’s the leading man — it would be great for something as influential as a Star Wars film to have a black hero. (Although it’s a pity there’s no mention of Billy Dee Williams in the cast.)
Plus we’ve got Max von Sydow. Appropriate for Ming the Merciless to be in the film, since Lucas only created Star Wars because he couldn’t get the rights to Flash Gordon. I wonder if von Sydow will be the villain.
I’m just amused that they brought in at least two members of the cast of Inside Llewyn Davis. Maybe they could also bring in the cat?
Very cool, but I’m most excited by the R2D2 in the box behind JJ…
Mis-geek
@7: Not sure Hamill would be that excited about playing Luke, given how much he had to struggle to get away from the typecasting burden that role placed on his career.
@10, Pointing out Leia proves my point. One chick, original generation, one chick, prequel generation, and now, one chick, sequel generation.
I don’t know who Daisy Ridley is, but her IMDB photo makes her look a lot like Natalie Portman.
Leia: “My daughter…you look just like my mother. At least according to my father’s ghost.”
That picture somehow managed to fill me with a lot of glee.
I am happy about John Boyega. I am bummed there aren’t more women. I wish SW had more women in it.
I’m surprised Michael Arndt is getting no writing credit here; wasn’t it just last October he was swapped out? So it was *completely* rewritten since then? Yikes.
Arndt will get a “Story by” credit, I think I’ve read…
One woman in the new generation cast?? This is 2014, not 1976. Hopefully this is not a derivative remake of a 70’s movie and is something more modern.
Max von Sydow would make an excellent Thrawn. As for the other newbies, I’ve never heard of any of them.
Why is Kenny Baker the only one in costume? And why the hell are they making him sit in a box?
I really wasn’t excited about the new movie until I saw this photo. Let’s hope we are still just as geeked after seeing the movie.
@21, Go see Attack the Block. It’s a great movie, and John Boyega’s great in it.
And Sydow would make a great Thrawn.
Who is the gentlemen next to Hamil who all we can see of is his head?
@21 & 24: While I’m sure the movies will draw background elements from the EU, the way the prequels drew on things like Coruscant from the novels and Aayla Secura from the comics, I expect them to create their own original villains and core characters. They’ve already said they’re not going to retell a story from the EU.
Looks promising to me. I just mainly hope that:
a) Han, Luke and Leia aren’t in it TOO much. I like them being there, but it would feel weird for them to be the main stars of the movie.
b) Linked to a), I hope there aren’t too many “I’m getting too old for this” jokes
Also worth nothing that Oscar Isaac is hispanic. If the rumors are true and Adam Driver is a baddie, that means the three top-billed (likely) heroes are a black dude, a white woman, and a Cuban-Guatemalan dude. Of course, we don’t know if order really means anything, or if they’ll all be heroes, but that’s pretty cool.
Also, Max von Freakin’ Sydow.
@26, They’ve said they will pull characters, and Thrawn is iconic in the EU. With the “Legends” idea, it sounds as if a lot of characters are going to be pulled, IMO.
@25. FossMaNo1 Anthony Daniels or Max von Sydow maybe?
Love that Max von Sydow is in this movie.
As for the diversity of the cast:
It is worthy of note that the headliner (at least according to Star Wars.com) is Black and apparently there is someone of Cuban-Guatemalan descent (according to jere7my@28, anyway?) as well. So a step or two in the right direction.
Having said that, there is still a long way to go. 1 female character headliner added to the new cast (out of 7)? Just 1? Counting Carrie Fisher/Leia, that’s just 2 out of the 13 listed? Not to mention, this also appears to mean that just 2 of the 13 listed cast are people of color, as well.
I’m really hoping that the smaller roles include a better representation of gender and racial/ethnic diversity than this.
I’m not surprised that Billy Dee Williams or other “secondary” actors from the previous trilogy are not listed here. Given the remit to introduce new characters, new story, and a new status quo, there’s only so many reintroductions that can done. The other characters listed would be in a “family” dynamic or be physically-unchanging droids and would share much of their reintroduction. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other actors/characters from the previous films (including possible some prequel elements) making appearances in VIII & IX as the unfolding narrative more naturally makes space for them.
And as for the question of “only one woman.” If you count, excluding return Original Trilogy actors/actress, there’s seven cast members listed. One or more might be aliens or droids — Andy Sirkis tends to rarely be “himself” in movies — but that includes almost certainly just core protagonists and antagonists for VII. For all anyone knows, the entire secondary cast could be female. This movie could lead into a plotline where a number of female main characters are added in VIII.
Plus, we know nothing about the context of the list besides the list and photo. There are no character names attached, nor does the press release state that this is the complete main list of actors. With secondary filming going on right now and various actors & actresses likely finishing up other work in preparation for primary film work on VII, there could be other names that aren’t listed here because they weren’t at Pinewood today when the photo was taken. We literally don’t have information either way. We merely know seven additional names that we didn’t know (or know for certain besides rumors) this morning.
@31: From Wikipedia, “Isaac was born in Guatemala, to a Guatemalan mother, Maria, and a Cuban pulmonologist father, Óscar Gonzalo Hernández.”
And I want to echo what Bhaughwout said: there will be many other roles cast, and it’s possible that other roles have already been cast but that the actors couldn’t make the reading. The fact that Billy Dee Williams and Maisie Richardson-Sellers weren’t mentioned today doesn’t mean they won’t have roles in Episodes VII+.
Amazing! Thew first star wars movie since 1983!
Care to play the guessing game, everybody? Because when they sent out the audition breakdown, we got some indication of what they were looking for. Interestingly, they were looking for two young female characters. Has the script changed, or has someone not been announced perhaps?
My guesses below based on the breakdown they gave:
I would swap Serkis and Isaac.
If Maisie Richardson-Sellers is the other uncast woman, she’s way too young to play Obi-Wan’s biracial daughter, which is what I keep hearing.
@Aeryl – The Obi-Wan descendant rumor always seemed so strange to me, but it would be awesome if Richardson-Sellers was the other woman in the breakdown.
Yeah, it would be. Unfortunately, what I’m getting, since everything else on that list was filled(including the two sets of interchangeable dudes) is that economy of story has “forced” them to condense the two seperate women into one UBERwoman.
They should they could use the EU for inspiration, but they didn’t say they would “pull” characters.
Thrawn won’t be in there. Give it up.
Who is the Josh Groban look-a-like?
Von Sydow is in this! Well, there’ your plot: a Sith and a Jedi Knight sit by the seaside and play chess.
@40, Adam Driver,
Any relation to Mini?
Am I the only one that noticed that Harrison Ford has a serious sweating problem.
I’m so happy I could cry! Makes me so happy the originals are coming back.
@@@@@ 35-38
There is a third woman in the photo, with her back to us, or perhaps that’s Kathleen Kennedy, one of the producers.
So excited, especially about John Boyega. I watched his Twitter followers go from 3,000 to 7,000 today and climbing.
As suspected from the casting calls, there is (probably) another female role that Abrams hasn’t yet cast:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-episode-vii-casting-699924
Not quite confirmed, but if there are “several sources” it seems pretty likely. This is probably the role Richardson-Sellers was/is in contention for.
@46: Apparently that is Kathleen Kennedy, yes. Bryan Burk is the one next to her on the couch.
http://io9.com/who-do-you-think-the-new-cast-is-playing-in-star-wars-e-1569497535
Man, I am trying to be all cynical about this, but this (and the picture) kind of gave me chills and made me remember the days of squeeing over all the prequel news. It’s an exciting time!
So excited to hear that, among the big 3, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker and Peter Mayhew are coming back. Squee :D
Andy Serkish was definitely my biggest, ‘what??? Cool!’ of the piece. I actually hope he gets to play as himself, haha. Although he could very well be a CGI character. Maybe he’s Jar Jar’s descendent (I will laugh and laugh if that ends up being the case) ;)
Also, totally missed that Bill Weasley was one of the actors too!
As I’m not a fan of Disney or J.J. Abrams I have pretty low expectations for this whole project. So I have very little to say but I want to echo those of many others who have asked where the women are. There should be a lot more.
A friend pointed out how amusing it is to imagine Peter Mayhew there for the read-through. Awesome that he’s there, but he probably doesn’t have that much to do in terms of reading through dialogue, you know?
Ford: “Chewie, what’s that up ahead?”
Mayhew: “GrooAAAWWAAAooAAAUUUAUau!”
Ford: “…you’ve still got it, Pete”
@51: Even without dialogue, Mayhew would still have reason to be at the table read so he could rehearse how to interact with the other performers and work on his interplay with them. It makes sense to me. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Chewie had some kind of scripted placeholder dialogue that would be “translated” into Wookiee (or whatever their language is called) by Ben Burtt. That way, he and the other actors would know what he was supposed to be saying and how they were supposed to react.
Shyriiwook :)
These script readings act more as a cast party than a rehearsal anyway. Half the time, especially with star wars, its not the whole script anyway. Parts are kept back until the day of shooting, so as not to reveal plot twists.
Next to JJ, on the other side of Ford, is that Anthony Daniels?
Is is just me or does he look freakishly similar to Harlan Ellison in this picture?
That’s Kasdan. Mark Hamill is leaning over to talk to Daniels.
No, Hamill is talking to Von Sydow, I thought.
Clockwise from center: J.J. Abrams, R2D2, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Bryan Burk, Kathleen Kennedy, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels (initially misidentified as Max Von Sydow by some sources), Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Lawrence Kasdan. Plus several unidentified people sitting outside the circle at the bottom of the photo. See the article I linked to in post #48.
The caption actually pops up on the starwars.com photo if you roll over it (or whatever is appropriate on your device). Looks like von Sydow and Baker weren’t present (unless that’s Kenny in the crate).
I appreciate the producers’ loyalty to Kenny Baker, but I have to wonder why they need him at all. The majority of what R2 does is radio control and — these days — CGI, so is there any practical advantage to not relying entirely on those?
Puppeteers add heart to the live action character, IMO. Look at puppet Yoda vs CGI Yoda.
What we see on screen will probably be CGI, but Baker will in the can on set, “acting” for R2
Part of the fail of CGI Yoda was that he was completely CGId instead of motion captured. I mean, even BEFORE CGI Yoda, Gollum was an almost oscar -worthy performance. Puppet-Yoda doesn’t come close to touching Gollum for expressiveness.
@61: But a puppeteer doesn’t have to be a guy inside the R2-D2 prop — it can just as well be someone operating it by radio control. A lot of the Yoda puppet’s facial expressions were cable-controlled while Frank Oz worked the mouth and head. The puppeteers on the ’90s Ninja Turtles movies and other such productions with animatronics used radio controls to work the faces of the characters while the performers inside the costumes did the body and head movements.
I mean, look at how R2 is shaped. No arms, no legs. The most that an operator inside it could do is turn the head, blink the lights, and waddle back and forth. Any shot of R2 rolling freely is radio-controlled as it is.
According to Don Bies, the R2-D2 supervisor on the prequels (and the main radio-control operator):
So we’ve already reached the point where, technologically, Baker isn’t needed at all. He was credited as R2 in Episode III, but it sounds like he wasn’t actually used there. So I have to wonder if it’s just a sinecure at this point, if they pay him for the use of his name, maybe give him a cameo role somewhere, but don’t actually put him inside the droid.
I mean, the guy’s going to be 80 in a few months. It’s probably not a good idea to ask him to cram himself into a tight, hot, enclosed space and make it wobble around, certainly not when radio control and CGI render it superfluous.
But Kenny’s still telling them what R2 should be doing. I’ve watched his interviews, and the thought and care he put into the wobbles and wiggles and head turns is immense. I would trust no one else to express it to the radio operators correctly.
@64: So he’s a performance coach for the character, then? I guess that could explain it.
I thought it might be interesting to contemplate what the newcomers might have been up to during the events of Return of the Jedi, given their ages at the time. Episode VII is set thirty years after RotJ; if they’re all playing their real ages (by no means a certainty) then:
John Boyega(‘s character) would have been born 8 years after RotJ.
Daisy Ridley would have been born 8 years after RotJ.
Adam Driver would have been 1.
Domhnall Gleeson would have been 1.
Oscar Isaac would have been 5.
Andy Serkis would have been 20.
Max von Sydow would have been 55.
That fits with the notion that Ridley is a Solo-Organa, and also suggests Boyega might be the most likely romantic interest for her. Von Sydow could well have been an Imperial officer. Isaac might remember life under the Empire; any of Isaac, Gleeson, or Driver could have lost parents during the war. Serkis’s age is probably irrelevant, because I doubt we’re going to see him. :)
Highly speculative, but perhaps worth a mull.