Tag: Anthony Daniels

There is an influx of new Star Wars VII information today! J.J. Abrams loves playing his usual mystery box secrets and giggling like a school girl while we itch to know more. We can wildly speculate every little inch of this film, but when we get something it feels like we can take off for the rest of the day. First, some new costumes.

While for legal reasons we cannot reproduce the images below, you can click on over to UPROXX to see them yourself. There’s also a few leaked images of what the new Stormtroopers look like, and they look kinda Kubrick. Han is dressed like an older, grizzled Malcolm Reynolds of sorts, which just that space cowboy trope full circle, don’t it? His other costume, made for colder temperatures, is a throwback to his duds from Empire Strikes Back. The Stormtroopers, meanwhile, evoke a sort of 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe. Their helmets remind me of the hotel ship from the film after the gigantic time jump. Interesting that one of the most influential pieces of sci-fi and pop culture is evoking the other most influential piece of sci-fi and pop culture ever. A lot of these visual references could just be total coincidence, after all how much can you really invent “space soldier” and “space cowboy”?

Now, the bad guys. Abrams posted the note below, thanking everyone for the cool $5 million donated for A Force For Change. Way to go, good people! Thing is, check out that hand holding the note. The cyborg one. Who the hell is that? Did they give a gritty edge to C-3PO?

According to Latino Review, the hand may belong to the Inquisitors, villains previously of the extended universe. This might hurt for you to hear, but anything relating to the extended universe and I start getting bored, so I’ll let the good source explain to you the Inquisitors.

The Inquisitors are the villains of Star Wars: Episode VII and the name of the main villain in Star Wars: Rebels. They seem to be loosly based on the now-deleted Expanded Universe Inquistors (Click here for that background) mixed with the hardended Sith look of Rebels’ villain. The Inquisitors are defenders of the Sith Order and they’ve been around for a long time. Just how long is what turns Episode VII’s story on it’s head.

Cool, I guess.

Hey. What’s this?

GET OUT NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT THE BIG SPOILER.

Ok?

Onward.

When our hero(es) find Luke and the Inquisitors are revealed, Luke’s explanation on the history of this order is going to trigger a flashback to explain that the Inquisitors have been tied into the Sith all along.

Remember when we broke Billie Lourd’s casting (Lourd is the biological daughter of Carrie Fisher)? That’s not so she can play a Solo kid, it’s so she can play a much younger Princess Leia than we’ve ever seen before in this flashback…

But, a young Princess Leia is not all this flashback reveals…

The Inquisitors will be seen serving Darth Vader in flashback.

Yes, Darth Vader will be on screen, briefly, in Star Wars: Episode VII. We’re not done with the dark prince of the Sith quite yet.

Briefly: The already expansive cast of J.J. Abrams Star Wars: Episode VII has just added two more.

Following the addition of 12 Years A Slave star Lupita Nyong’o and Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie a few weeks back, Disney has announced that newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen have joined the project in unspecified roles.

Here’s the announcement:

At the end of last year Lucasfilm and Disney invited all young aspiring actors to attend an open casting call for roles in J.J Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII. The casting calls spanned 11 cities across the US and UK and over 37,000 hopefuls attended, with a further 30,000 submitting applications online.

 

Having hunted high and low for young and undiscovered talent, the filmmakers are delighted to announce that two actors from the open call call have been cast.

 

Crystal Clarke is an American actress studying in Glasgow, UK, who has both stage and screen acting experience and is soon to be seen in her first feature,The Moon and the Sun (to be released in 2015). British actor Pip Andersen is a skilled practitioner of parkour, a discipline that involves propelling oneself through any given environment with incredible grace and agility. Pip recently demonstrated this remarkable skill in a Spider-Man ad for Sony.

 

“The Star Wars universe has always been about discovering and nurturing young talent and in casting Episode VII we wanted to remain absolutely faithful to this tradition. We are delighted that so many travelled to see us at the open casting calls and that we have been able to make Crystal and Pip a part of the film,” said producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.

 

Meanwhile, principal photography continues at Pinewood Studios in London after wrapping on location in Abu Dhabi in May.

 

In August, the team will take a brief two-week hiatus while adjustments to the current production schedule are made as actor Harrison Ford recovers from a leg injury. Harrison is doing well and is looking forward to returning to the set soon. Shooting remains on track to wrap in the fall with the film scheduled for release on December 18, 2015.

Are you looking forward to the film? What do you think of the new additions? Sound out below!

Photo via StarWars.com