Star Wars Episode 7 News

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

UPDATE 2! Star Wars: Episode 7 Cast Officially Announced!

star wars

The moment we have all been waiting for! Lucasfilm officially announced the cast for Star Wars: Episode VII...


From StarWars.com:
The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.

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.

UPDATE!

Few details about the cast by THR:

(click on the names for the IMDb page)


John Boyega

Boyega had a breakout role as Moses in 2011's sci-fi pic Attack the Block, directed by Joe Cornish. The 22-year old British actor, whose other film credits include Half of a Yellow Sun (which also starred Chiwetel Ejiofor), will next appear in the limited TV series 24: Live Another Day. He's repped by CAA and Management 360.



Ridley is a newcomer whose past credits are mostly comprised of TV appearances and short films. The British actress appeared on the British TV shows Mr Selfridge and Silent Witness. She's repped by Jonathan Arun Talent in the U.K.



Driver, who will play a villain, has come into the spotlight in the past two years for his breakout role as Lena Dunham's volatile boyfriend on HBO's series Girls. The 30-year-old actor also had a memorable part in The Coen Brother's Inside Llewyn Davis. Driver took a unique path to acting: He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq, and, after he was discharged, went to the University of Indianapolis for a year before transferring to the Juilliard. He appeared in 2011's J. Edgar, and has had TV roles on Law & Order and The Unusuals. He's repped by The Gersh Agency.


Isaac had a breakout role in the Coen Brother's 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis, playing a struggling musician in 1960s New York. Born in Guatemala and raised in Florida, Isaac graduated from the Juilliard School where he studied drama. The actor's early work included Robin Hood, Sucker Punch and W.E. He then played Carey Mulligan's husband in Nicolas Winding Refn's dark film Drive. Repped by UTA and Inspire Entertainment, Isaac's has wrapped work on J.C. Chandor's upcoming film A Most Violent Year and has two other films in the can: sci-fi drama Ex Machina and thriller Mojave starring Mark Wahlberg.



Serkis is known for his motion capture work in some of the biggest films from the past few years. He created the role of ring-hungry Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and plays intelligent ape Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Serkis, 50, earned a Golden Globe nom for playing a serial killer on the British TV film Longford. The CAA-repped actor, who directed second-unit on the first Hobbit film, is attached to direct Warner Bros. upcoming Jungle Book film.



The Irish actor is the son of actor Brendan Gleeson, and starred along his father as Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2. Repped by Paradigm, he'll appear in Angelina Jolie's upcoming directorial project Unbroken. Also a stage actor, Gleeson earned a Tony Award nomination in 2006 for his role in Broadway's The Lieutenant of Inishmore.



Max von Sydow has been a working actor since 1949, starring in dozens of films throughout his career, including Through a Glass Darkly, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Emigrants, The Exorcist and Three Days of the Condor. He worked with Ingmar Bergman in 11 films, the first being The Seventh Seal in 1957. The 85-year-old actor's more recent work includes The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Robin Hood and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, for which he was nominated for a best supporting actor


I don't know about you but I have the feeling that there's much more regarding the cast apart from the officially announced list. No word on the military guy role and the female of mixed ethnicity... 


UPDATE 2!

Cast photo breakdown by THR:


1. J.J. Abrams, director-writer
2. R2D2: R2-series astromech droid - Unclear what role in new films will be.
3. Harrison Ford, actor - Reprising his role as Han Solo.
4. Daisy Ridley, actress
5. Carrie Fisher, actress - Reprising her role as Leia.
6. Peter Mayhew, actor - Reprising his role as Chewbacca.
7. Bryan Burk, producer
8. Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm president
9. Domhnall Gleeson, actor
10. Anthony Daniels, actor - Reprising his role as C-3PO.
11. Mark Hamill, actor - Reprising his role as Luke Skywalker. What could he saying to C-3PO?
12. Andy Serkis, actor -- Deep in concentration.
13. Oscar Isaac, actor
14. John Boyega, actor
15. Adam Driver, actor - Playing an unspecified villain. Not looking entirely villainous here, yet.
16. Lawrence Kasdan, writer



353 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. WoW Jackpot.
      Ok so lets start on who the new cast are going to play.
      Max von Sydow: evil sith mastermind..Adam Driver: sith apprentice.
      Daisy Ridley Oscar Isaac:Solo kids.
      John Boyega: lukes apperntice.
      Domhnall Gleeson?
      andy serkis?. Grandson of Jar Jar lol

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    2. Grandson of Jar Jar hahaha.

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    3. @Anon 6:12pm, my thoughts exactly!

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    4. ok - way out of the box... Any possibility that Max Von Sydow will be Obi-wan Kenobi's ghost? He looks similar to Guinness...

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    5. (hit 'publish' too soon) and I'm guessing Gleeson is Luke's son.

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    6. I agree, Max Von Sydow does look like and could be a very good ghost for Obi-Wan - first thing I thought of when I saw him, lol.

      But as for anyone else, anyones guess is as good as mine, and we may just have to wait and see. Serkis could be a digital sith lord - why not?? (not saying that Serkis has to play a digital character in everything that he's in, but he is very good at it).

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    7. Mark Hamill had better be kick ass in this movie - The New Yoda!!!

      No one should say "he is too old" because Yoda was 900 yrs old and could still kick ass.

      And Tyranu/Dooku was old and he still jumped about (he had his head digitized onto a stunt swordsman for the light saber battles).

      Anakin was supposed to be the most powerful Jedi ever - but before he readched his absolute prime & power he was crippled and put in the Vader suite. Luke is his direct descendant and should have a great portion of that power!

      Everyone in the movies including Vader says how powerful the force is, even being compared to "the ability to destroy a planet"!!! Yet all anyone with the force has done is pull and push and electrocute things???

      Lets see something fantastic with the force - like ripping a star destroyer from the skies like outta Force Unleashed!

      It always bothered my that LUcas made some comment about the poor lightsaber dual between Vader and Obi-Wan in A New Hope - yes they were old and crippled warriors, but Obi-Wan should have been able to still flip about like old Yoda and Dooku and an opportunity to put some of this back into the special editions was missed and that fight remains boring.

      So come on Luke/Mark - lets see what ya got!!!!!

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    8. The movie will ***. The character selection is irrelevant.
      While TV has evolved and started to master the longform storytelling method, movies have stayed the same. Netflix for example lets you download a story that is twenty hours in length PER season. You can watch the story without having to wait a year for the next 90min bit.

      If the movie was 10 hours long and then released... then the story would be longform and would have all those benefits. But it will be shallow in context and character builds etc... like all movies are compared to good TV today.

      The movie is going to ****. Unfortunately. Like the last three did to an extent. The reason is because we see great TV stories and great movie stories are nowhere in comparison today.

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    9. No need to have Max Von Sydow as Obi. They would just get Ewan McGregor to play him.

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  2. Here's your big whoop de doo!

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  3. Replies
    1. Then you realize that you are chasing the old feeling the movie gave when it was an EPIC story.

      Times have changed.
      (90 minute movie =/= adequate time to reveal an epic story)


      eg.... 'The Lord Of The Rings' Versus 'Game Of Thrones'
      Different formats. Who could argue against 'The Lord Of The Rings' could have been better with a longform storytelling. It's obvious. That trilogy could have easily been 2x or 3x longer to explain all those characters and scenarios that it just glazed over.



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  4. The big 3 are nice, but Mayhew, Daniels, and Baker show more to me that this is heading in the right direction.

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  5. Kenny Baker? John Boyega? Andy Serkis? ... oh dear oh dear. But Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Daisy Ridler, are very interesting choices.

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    Replies
    1. How dare you "oh dear" Andy Serkis! What is wrong with you?!

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    2. How dare you "oh dear" Kenny Baker!!!! He has been R2D2 since 1977!!!!! - Wake up.

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  6. Replies
    1. I think having Max von Sydow is huge. He's an actor with lots of experience and can help the younger actors like Alec Guinness did.

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    2. This is pretty cool. Not in a million years would I have expected von Sydow to be in it. (To be honest I thought he was dead)

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    3. Oh, he's not dead, at least not yet!

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  7. SO the only ones I know are Golem, and the guy who does Vigo's voice from Ghostbusters 2 lol. All the rest seem like fresh new actors which is good

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    Replies
    1. Max Von Sydow is a pretty big Old School actor. He played the elder Priest in The Exorcist and Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told.

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    2. Just found out he played Ming the Merciless in the 1980 Flash Gordan, from one Space Opera to another.

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    3. And the villain in Strange Brew. (that's a classic right there)

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    4. Brewmeister Smith!

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    5. Don't forget minority report!

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    6. Yes Minority Report. I totally forgot lol

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    7. He was in Stallone's Judge Dredd and in Lynch's Dune as well.

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  8. I'm so curious he's casting Andy Serkis, I'm wondering if he's playing a live action character or CG as usual. I really wish it's a live action character... For the rest, it's pretty interesting! I'm happy there's no Zack Afron in the movie! And for Daisy Ridley, she looks like Natalie Portman, I'm sure she's playing Luke or Leia's descendence!

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    1. Yeah, I also hope that the character of Andy Serkis is live-action.

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    2. maybe andy will play Zeb from Rebels

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    3. Oh no... Andy Serkis = Jar Jar...

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  9. Where's Billy Dee Williams?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe he will be cast in VIII? Fingers crossed.

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    2. I agree with this, we will se him in Episode VIII

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    3. Billy Dee Williams wont be in it, as Lando got shot in a drive-bye dealing death sticks in Coruscant's lower levels, hahahahahahah!

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    4. "You don't want to sell me death sticks!"

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    5. Episode VIII lol

      We will all be pensioners by then.
      90min story.....wait a year or two.... another 90min....wait more.

      Star Wars was revolutionary in it's day. Now it's just the same old. Episode VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII should all be released together or one every two months. Now that would make star wars revolutionary again. Well, at least one movie would be catching up with the far more advanced form that is currently exclusive to TV storytelling.


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  10. Now once and for all we can officially say that the recast rumors were baseless drivel. Awesome news

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    1. Happy for kenny.
      Are they really gona stuff him in R2

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  11. They cast Jesus! Awesome!

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  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeQifImY4Hk

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    1. Could we get the non *special* edition victory dance? Hahah

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  13. What a great day !! We now have a cast.

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    1. Where's Lando? Maybe he will be turning up in the next 0ne

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  14. Great. A male dominating cast once more... *sigh* Well at least Carrie Fisher and Daisy Ridley are both awesome

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the way it should be. Stop trying to force your agenda on to the movies

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. Yes, it would have been REALLY GREAT to see a female lead (<- sarcasm). No misoginy here, but the six movies were about the Skywalkers, who happen to be MEN

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    4. PC fascist... You really think the casting directors for this movie would risk the accusation of sexism in a project this large? Just because this announcement doesn't give you anything real to whine about doesn't mean you have to fabricate your own reason.

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    5. Who knows... Daisy Ridley could have a huge lead. I agree I'd like to see more women in the film too but I think JJ abrams is cognizant of the Bechdel test, I don't think this will fail that test.

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    6. (anon 6.11 PM) Right, I didn't consider that she could still be the lead, they didn't just tell us the characters...I wouldn't like that, just because I'd rather see the Skywalker family line continued in a traditional way, like the old movies. There were, in the lead roles, 2 males and 1 female in the OT, and approximately 2 males and 1 female in the PT...it would be logical and nice to see the same thing in the ST. Also, I don't think they would risk with such a "new" move. But I'd really like to see a female jedi.

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    7. Um.. the main character, IS A BLACK GUY!!! That in and of it self is huge!

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    8. "The way it should be"? Women SHOULD be underrepresented in our culture? Why? Women are 50% of the population. Doesn't it seem a little odd for them to appear far less than 50% of the roles in the stories we tell? Huh, it's almost like we're acting like women don't ever do anything important. That's idiotic and it's not an agenda to wasn't to fix it, it's recognizing a problem.

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    9. Do we know John is the Lead character? I'm so dissapointed if that's true ha

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    10. Also, that's not to say it will suck b/c of this, but it's okay to hope for better.

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    11. (anon 6.11 PM) @Jeffrey Alfaro I totally agree with you. In fact women are more of the 50% of the population, if I remember right. And it's a shame that our society (as well as many other culures in the world...) has man in its centre...things are slightly changing, but it will take centuries for women to achieve a role equal to the man. I disagree with what @Walter W seemed to intend, and I think it would've been great to see more women here, but I stand on what I told about the female lead: it would be too different from the Star Wars we know and love

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    12. We have no idea what the story is and therefore what roles these actors will play - Daisy may be the lead and we see the most of her. Originally it was rumored that a strong young female will be the jedi lead in these new movies, so I guess we wil wait and see.

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    13. Well, it's a movie that is mostly geared towards men/boys. Call me when people are upset that there's not enough male leads in the Princess Diaries.

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    14. actually, princess diaries had a very 50/50 cast, if I remember correctly

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    15. Twilight was geard towards girls/women and they had a strong male set of characters. I think you're forgetting that what really matters is the story itself. If it's better for the story to focus on a male lead, then let it happen. Just because it may not be entirely politically correct (according to you, Anon) does not in any way suggest the movie will suck because of that. Just quit thinking so negatively. If that were the case, the OT would not be internationally recognized as one of the best film trilogies in history.

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  15. Harrisson is sueading in the photo! Look under his arm!!

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    1. I am curious how one has suede coming out of their underarm.

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  16. Interesting. I reckon I need to go see Inside Llewyn Davis now. ;^)

    I really dig the idea of Max von Sydow in a SW movie. And let's hope that whatever CGI character Andy Serkis is playing ends up being something as far from Jar Jar as possible!

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    Replies
    1. Inside Llewyn Davis - it sounds like a porno, lol

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  17. Hallelujah! OMG Andy Serkis?! YES PLEASE! Maybe a well-done cgi creature in performance capture? That'd be awesome! Big 3 plus Daniels, Baker and Mayhew...what a joy to finally know for sure they'll be there. It's a shame Billy Dee Williams won't be there, I'd have loved to see lando again...still, seen Gleeson in Black Mirror, he did a really good job!

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  18. max von sydow has the look of the emperial guy who tortures leia in new hope... either way he has bad guy written all over him...

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  19. Max Von Sydow. PLEASE BE THE VILLAIN !

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    Replies
    1. Thinking old jedi in hiding...

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  20. Ron's brother from Harry Potter? That is correct right? Good cast, curious no Palpatine?

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    Replies
    1. ehm...Palpatine is quite dead...

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    2. Why the hell would they bring back Palpatine if they've made it adundantly clear that the post ROTJ EU stories are now discarded?

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    3. there was an early rumor he was involved that's all.

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    4. There was an earlier rumor suggesting Zach Efron and we don't see him (thank god)

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    5. Yes let us all rejoice that there is no Zach Efron. that guy would not be good

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    6. Damn right no palpatine - he's dead and that would totally make the first 6 movies completely pointless. What a strange comment to make.

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    7. Could also be that he is being kept a secret. Not in this photo for a reason.

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    8. I think you guys just have to let the NJO and Thrawn trilogy go... There's obviously no place for those plot points.

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  21. AEHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! FINALLY! ONLY GOOD GUYS. But... just me or someone also noted that the cast is small?

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    1. This is just the core cast... I'm sure there will be a lot of secondary actors and extras of course :)

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  22. This is incredible news! So glad to see the original cast of preliminary characters have returned. Now I'm really excited to see where we're taken in this new trilogy!

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    1. Oh yes. I think the cast is a bit small think we might get a few surpises.
      smaller supporting roles that will have more say as the story progreses

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  23. I think we've crashed the star wars site!
    Very cool to finally see it official.

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  24. Is there some hope to see some guys from New Trilogy? Ian McDiarmind, Ewan, Hayden or Mace?

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    1. Mace = Samuel L. Jackson. (Oh, really?)

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    2. Highly doubtful. Either way, why would you really want that?

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    3. This is the main cast, bet your ass others will have bit parts force ghosts etc

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    4. What if Andy Serkis has been cast to play Yoda's force ghost?

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    5. I don't think so, @dopeyjoe. The wouldn't cast someone as Andy just for a "force ghost".

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    6. @dopeyjoe that would be nice, but if they bring back yoda they should have to explain why there aren't Ben and Anakin as force ghosts. Also, with 3po and r2, chewbie and the big 3, they've got plenty of original characters, putting yoda with them would be too much. Also agree with @Paulo

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    7. "Is there some hope to see some guys from New Trilogy? Ian McDiarmind, Ewan, Hayden or Mace?"

      Mace is dead and didn't learn how to preserve his identity when he became one with the force.
      Ewan could return as Obi_wan - but not likely as his recent force ghost was Alec not Ewan.

      Mace and Ewan could return as holocron projections though same the Ian - but Ian's character is truly dead and that's that. Need to see what new sith these new movies will bring anyway.

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    8. Exactly, They could return as holocron projections.

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  25. OK Abrams(&Kennedy) really has the balls. Unknown actors with very little info even on IMDb! Most of them with 1-2 films. Love that. Also like diversity in the cast. White, latino, black for leads. Love it.

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    1. WoW Jackpot.
      Ok so lets start on who the new cast are going to play.
      Max von Sydow: evil sith mastermind..Adam Driver: sith apprentice.
      Daisy Ridley Oscar Isaac:Solo kids.
      John Boyega: lukes apperntice.
      Domhnall Gleeson?
      andy serkis?. Grandson of Jar Jar lol

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    2. I think that sounds pretty spot-on. Not sure about Oscar Isaac as one of Han and Leia's kids (he'd be a good bit older than Daisy Ridley's character) but it's certainly possible. Then again, perhaps Han and Leia only have a daughter.

      I'd actually like to see Andy Serkis do a completely straight, non-CGI role.

      Von Sydow's character is probably old enough to have been around during the Clone Wars, which could be interesting.

      As long as they don't try to tie every new character to an existing character from the OT or the PT, of course... we had a bit too much of the "It's A Small Universe After All" thing in the PT, IMHO.

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    3. Von Sydow is Darth Plageus.

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    4. I like that idea, but they would have to be careful it's not too voldimort-ish.

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    5. I'm just going to say it: Domhnall Gleeson, although perhaps a bit old (born in 1983), looks the most like Mark Hamill. Maybe Luke DOES have a direct descendant? Boyega related to Lando?

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    6. We can all sit here and gues, come up with crazy and stupid ideas for who is going to play what part until we are all blue in the face - we will just have to wait.

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  26. The prrrecious is strong in this one...

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    1. Andy Serkis to play pack of CGI Rancors

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    2. Gollum cold be Yoda's long lost brother... His evil twin.

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    3. Jar Jar ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

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  27. The girl in the bottom left hand corner of the picture looks like the same girl who was reading the bad robot script. Same hair. Also, who is to the right of Kathleen Kennedy?

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  28. Oh is that Kathleen Kennedy? I was wondering who that was lol. Bryan Burk is to the right.

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  29. Who's sitting between Boyega and Serkis? Is that Oscar?

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  30. Max von sidow... WOW.
    He could be a Imperial commander or smthing, also the lord sith, but..

    what if he plays the ghost of Obi wan... look at pictures of him now in 2014, with beard.. if somebody could do it, is him i believe

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  31. What happen with star wars site????

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  32. is that daniels to the left of JJ? i thought it was him talking to mark at the bottom but i'm not guessing that is max?? i'm also curious who's to the right and left of kathleen and where is kenny? mentioned but not shown

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    1. Lawrence Kasdan is to the left of JJ. I'm not sure who Mark is talking to. Probably Max judging by his hair and the fact he isn't anywhere else in the picture. But could be Anthony Daniels.

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    2. thanks... then if that is max that would mean kenny and daniels are both either not there or out of the pic... who's next to kathleen on the other side who's back we only see.?

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    3. Actually it's Daniels in the left of Mark.

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  33. Seriously? Only ONE new female? Well thank fuck for Carrie Fisher's return.

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  34. Max von sidow = Imperial Admiral or Chief of the New Republic?

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  35. April 29th, Pinewood Studios, UK - Writer/Director/Producer J.J Abrams (top center right) at the cast read-through of Star Wars Episode VII at Pinewood Studios with (clockwise from right) Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Producer Bryan Burk, Lucasfilm President and Producer Kathleen Kennedy, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Writer Lawrence Kasdan. Copyright and Photo Credit: David James

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    1. excellent... where were you earlier... lol...

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    2. We need to get this guy to get some more pics for us haha.

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    3. Great job. it is cool to see the original cast back again

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    4. Wish I was that "in the know". Taken directly from starwars.com caption.

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  36. Great photo but where is Kenny Baker? Oh yea, in the crate.

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  37. I notice some set work in the background... spaceship interior?

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  38. Thank god no Zak Efron and no Micheal B Jordan, great cast. Where are the black girls rumored to be in this? A lot of those rumored look like they were BS.

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  39. Pretty good choices, great to see six originals back! I think Serkis is a good choice whether its a CGI character or not and there will be some CGI with the practical effects anyway. Ridley, Von Sydow and Gleeson no one predicted!

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  40. 99% positive Sydow is Darth Plagues.

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    1. Why would he be Darth Plagueis? Palpatine killed him 60 or 70 years before the events of this movie.

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    2. So we all were told by mr liar puppet master palpatine and so we all presume.. ;) I also thought he could be plagues but I don't think so. I hope he's a sith and has a sith apprentice to mirror the palpatine/vader thing.

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    3. I assume that von Sydow is probably the dark side master, with Driver as the apprentice. I still think that it would be interesting to have dark side enemies who don't necessarily follow the Sith line, but I assume they'll probably play the safe and familiar card as far as that goes.

      I could maybe see Driver as a Jedi apprentice at the beginning of the movie who is power-hungry enough to turn to the dark side by the end of the movie, sort of in the vein of the way that Obi Wan originally described Darth Vader in ANH.

      But again, I expect they'll probably take a more predictable route and we'll see von Sydow as the new Sith master and Driver as his Vader-ish apprentice from the outset of the movie.

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  41. Im thinking Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are the Solo siblings. Domhnall Gleeson could be the son of Luke if his mother is some new red head character. Im curious if this Max Von Sydow will play some sort of Tarkin like role since a Tarkin book is coming out. John Boyega.. maybe hes lukes apprentice?

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  42. Gleeson looks like Kenobi with a beard so he is the surprise at the end of the movie and Boyega is Lando's kid who will be the comedy side kick that keeps trying but failing with Ridley who is the Solo daughter but Gleeson who is a Solo like character gets the girl.
    I Thank You

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  43. Are they really gonna put 80 years old Kenny Baker inside R2? seems weird... what if hes gonna be Wicket the old Ewok lol, or maybe some new character, But inside r2? To portray that character in the old movies, he was moving the head side to side and bouncing inside the suit, but nowadays i dont think is needed to do that.

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  44. Only one new woman. So much for equality...

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    1. Yeah I don't know why I'm so surprised by the lack of females. A female jedi? female sith? A female LEAD? That would have been freakin' awesome. I think everyone is going to sort of pat JJ on the back for casting John because of his race and that's somehow brave or something. But yeah screw the girls there's very few vagina's in star wars I guess.

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    2. How can you be so certain that Daisy's role won't be the primary focus of these movies?

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    3. Sounds to me like she's a lead character. And if she's a Skywalker, she's probably going to end up swinging a light saber.

      No, it's not a primarily female cast. Then again, Star Wars never has been a primarily female franchise. I don't see them really messing with the formula all that much this first time out post-Lucas.

      Give 'em time, though. Once they have the new series established a bit more, I bet they'll start trying different things.

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    4. "Star Wars never has been a primarily female franchise." Exactly. That's the problem lol.

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    5. "How can you be so certain that Daisy's role won't be the primary focus of these movies?"
      um isn't it obvious?

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    6. nothing is obvious. except that most of the original cast is returning.

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    7. "Exactly. That's the problem lol."

      Star Wars movies have never been musicals, either. How far afield do we want to go with it?

      If you'd have read my entire post, you'd see that the point I was making was that Disney isn't likely to mess with the established Star Wars formula for this first movie in the new series. That's only logical... they shelled out a fortune to buy LFL and Star Wars, and it makes sense that they would take a pretty conservative approach to Episode VII, it being the first SW movie done without Lucas being at the helm as a producer or a director.

      Once they have this first SW movie under their belt, I think that we WILL see them getting more experimental in terms of deviating from the old SW formula. I would expect to eventually see more female leads, female villains, etc.

      But to expect that the suits at Disney were going to risk their investment in any way by changing up the old SW formula for this first new film just isn't realistic. That's why the cast for this one looks a lot like the casts for the previous SW films, and it's why we will probably see a very straightforward storyline for Episode VII as well. I'd like to see them get more creative with the plot, the conflict, and the characters, but I don't think it's likely to happen this time around.

      But with a new SW flick planned for each year from 2015 onward... yeah, they're going to have a lot of room to play with things down the road.

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  45. Ugh bummed out about Andy Serkis and John Boyega. But so excited about Max von Sydow. (Please please please be the new creepy-ass leader of the dark side!). Daisy Ridley, and Domhnall Gleeson I'm super insanely excited about.

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    1. When has Serkis ever played a truly awful role?

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    2. I never said that. I just think if they wanted a high profile actor, then why pick Andy of all people when there's far far better actors out there? Hopefully they picked him because the character is a motion capture thing.

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    3. We have no idea what role he was chosen for, but it was obviously for a good reason if they took so long finalizing the cast. We can't make any foolish assumptions.

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  46. Adam driver could be a sith, but not just simply a sith as a bad guy jedi, but a sith as race (the dudes with red skin and sort-of tentacles in the face). I think he has the look to be one of these aliens

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  47. has anybody mentioned Karen "Amy Pond" Gillan's hair in a supporting role yet? (she revealed the wig they made from her hair is currently residing in the SW Props room...lol

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  48. hehe Emporer Ming in star wars. You got to love that. :)
    And Andy Serkis that's cool.
    Very nice cast I love it.

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  49. I would be curious to know who the people at the very bottom of the picture are. Supporting cast members?

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    1. Looks like Cathy Kennedy is one of them

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    2. I guess he means the partial-heads we see at the very-very bottom of the picture

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  50. What if.. the Harry Potter dude is gonna play the son of chewbacca? maybe the wig of Amy Pond is part of his suit

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  51. Why doesn't anyone think that Adam Driver is not Han and Leia's kid?

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  52. I look at at it this way:
    What Star Trek-NG did for Classic Star Trek, could happen here. As long as they do it right. We're just gonna have to wait and see.

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  53. When do you think we will receive a announcement about what the storyline will be, who these actors will be playing?

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  54. Anyone try and zoom in on the open script books yet?

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  55. Kenny baker is not missing from the photo................He is inside R2D2 of course!

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  56. I’m surprised this hasn’t been done yet!!!..... Lets look at the original casting call and see how things now line up….

    • Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit. (Daisy Ridley)
    • Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking. (Adam Driver)
    • A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident. (John Boyega)
    • Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’ t need to be particularly fit. (Max Von Sydow)
    • A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit. (?)
    • Forty something male, fit, military type. (Andy Serkis)
    • Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit. (Oscar Isaac)

    The only part not covered is the 2nd young female and I cant place a part for Domhnall Geleeson. It’s likely the part was changed from a female character to a male character. I think it's interesting in that the part for the 40 year old military type seems it could only fall to Andy Serkis. So he could be in a traditional role instead of doing mo-cap... That would be cool

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    1. my gut tells me that Serkis and Isaac should be swapped in your write up.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Kurumako, I went back and forth on that myself but it came down to their age.

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  57. Max von Sydow is the big surpise here. With the proper makeup he could certainly do a fully passable Obi-Wan, especially as OB1 would (presumably) be a slightly blurry Force-ghost anyway.

    Whatever his part is, the man is in his mid-eighties; they cannot be certain that he will be available for the entire trilogy. If he is not Obi-Wan, could von Sydow be the "mentor figure" that has to die in the first movie of the trilogy, in the grand tradition of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan?

    But what kind of mentor, then? Since the character would be old enough to have experienced even the Clone Wars, how to explain that he has never appeared in the films before? Yes, the galaxy is huge, but ...

    If he is Palpatine's own master, Darth Plagueis, another chunck EU material goes out of the window. He was described as an alien in the novel named after him. Also, we must then assume that Palpatine either lied or was wrong about Plagueis being dead. (Maybe he left his master for dead, but this guy had been researching immortality, remember?)

    Heck, even the notion that Plagueis was necessarily Palpatine's own master is based solely on EU sources. It was never stated in the movies.

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  58. I don't see lens flare mentioned on this list. He is big in every JJ flick.

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  59. Anyone notice, that what looks like an opening crawl is on inner side of the r2 d2 box flap?

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  60. Just above Abram's head for clarification...

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  61. I am very disappointed, I was expecting an official announcement on May 4th or later.
    How dare they announce earlier than I expected.

    Only kidding, lol
    I am over the moon by the news. I guess they just could not keep it secret any longer with the recent events the past few days.

    Just hope J.J. Abrams can get a good performance out of Harrison Ford, looks like he is already practicing for this in the photo.

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  62. I really, really like this cast.

    I like how there's young people, older people, and middle aged people. This looks great so far.

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  63. The additions of Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis and Max Von Sydow are the most intriguing to me. No clue who Oscar Isaac will be (which is a good thing), but Andy Serkis is a little more interesting to me. I could see him maybe doing mo-cap work for Peter Mayhew (in some more physical Chewie scenes), or maybe even do mo-cap and voice work as Yoda's force ghost. Sydow could be force ghost Obi-Wan, or he could maybe be an elderly Thrawn. I wouldn't mind him as a Sith lord either with Driver as his apprentice. Doesn't matter- this cast is incredible!

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  64. Daisy Ridley looks very much like a cross between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. Very excited and hope there are a few surprises thrown in for 12/18/15!

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  65. If Max Von Sydow grows a Jedi beard he we look amazingly just like Alec Guinness.
    If he is to play Bens force ghost then I think I could except that instead of some CGI trickery.
    But we don't know yet, he could be playing a completely different character.

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    1. Max as Obi-wan? wtf?? lol no no no no. Hopefully he is the new palpatine.

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    2. i'd be willing to say the odds are better than 80/20 he's bad vs good.

      just my guess though... his imd pic archive just makes him look evil lol

      and i'm not sure they'd bring in and list a major character for just a small part of a force ghost... unless that is going to be a huge story line in this one and i don't think so.

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  66. anyone else think it's suspicious that daisy is sitting between harrison and carrie... i'm thinking the get to know your parent's and establish chemistry phase has begun if she is indeed their kid.. placement of the other characters could be key as well with the younger cast all sitting together on the other side of mark... beside andy ... possible trio of jedi and or adam driver sitting alone...sith being separated... who knows. quite possibly the most poured over picture in recent history...

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    1. boom. good catch. bet you're right.

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    2. i been staring at the picture all day and all of the sudden that just came to me... the part about harrison and carrie more than anything because i'm going to say it's almost certain that's their daughter... the others were more of a specualtion and until we know who's who it will be harder to tell. also chewie is sitting kind of off to the side and staring at his script... he's probably got less interaction to worry about and he's already probably got that down with harrison.

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  67. Max von Sydow = 2.07 in this clip from clone wars

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsSQVS_ypw8

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  68. I wonder what their roles will be. Sure are a lack of females. Presumably the "new trio" will be John Boyega, Daisy Ridley and either Adam Driver or Domhnall Gleeson. Hopefully it's Domhnall as he is a brilliant character and would bounce off Daisy so well as she seems to be very funny also.

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  69. Past suggestion that there will be a major unexpected plot twist and that Harrison Ford has a "gigantic role" so here's a suggestion: "There is another Skywalker" in Clone Wars suggests that maybe Anakin had a sibling (Sidow), who Luke finds... but he is also a dark side user who finally does what Anakin and palpatine could not. He turns Luke to the dark side. Han Solo, who always preferred a blaster, must ironically kill his friend Luke with just such a weapon...

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    1. Or maybe since Episodes VII - IX were supposed to be more about philosophical questions (like good vs. evil, "from a certain point of view") we learn that the ancient Jedi (Dark Jedi or otherwise) were really the bad guys all along... oppressing the poor Sith. Parallels to attempted white supremacy over other races.

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  70. How do we know Adam is playing a villain?

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  71. Gleeson has the face of an Imperial officer if you ask me. Will the Empire play a part in the new trilogy? I really hope so.

    Good cast ,I'm so far very happy. Hopefully it'll only get better and better.

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  72. Wow Daisy Ridley looks like Natalie Portman.

    The granddaughter pulled a lot of genes from her grandmother. :D

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  73. Thanks for posting the photo with the labels, I was trying to figure out who some of them were, damn guys this is sooooooooooo cool! Way better than any pics we got prior to the PT :)

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  74. mostly proper character actors and a decent bunch n all ... serkis in that ian dury film was amazing ,he can do anything well and max von is geat , like peter cushing .

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  75. Cannot wait Star Wars Episode VII is going to be awesome!

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  76. Harrison Ford is a fantastic actor. Mark is vastly underrated, a truly humble man. Peter Mayhew IS Chewbacca. Carrie Fisher is the witty soul of her character. Lets not forget Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker who were perfect comic relief throughout the entire saga.

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  77. There isn't a single Star Wars movie with more than one female lead. Here we will have two female leads, stop complaining.

    I'm noticing that Luke doesn't have any female character to play as his spouse. He's a bachelor or a widower, and this now gives credit to the rumor of a black adopted son and possibly a biological son from his late wife. Or it could be that his wife won't play a leading role and therefore isn't mentioned in this casting announcements. Only major cast members are being announced here, which tells me that the big three will be the leads for this film, and gradually the new generation will take up their mantel.

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  78. I am sure others have said this. For me, ever since Dark Empire, Heir to the Empire, Jedi Academy, etc I always wondered what kind of Jedi Master would Luke Skywalker be? Would he turn to the dark side to defeat it from within? Would he be more like Obiwan? Well, that wait is soon to be over my friends! The Force is strong with us! Cannot wait to see Jedi Master Skywalker on the big screen! So happy for Mark Hamill, he deserves this! Congrats to the entire cast! :)

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  79. BUT WAIT EVERYONE. They still haven't opened the box! Title announcement imminent as well.

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