New details about Star Wars: The Force Awakens have come to light, including who Domhnall Gleeson is playing.
A long time ago, Star Wars fans thought they had seen the last of the franchise in theaters. Hard to believe that we're now less than one year away from the release of a brand new Star Wars adventure, Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
So, let's explain how this article works:
If there's any major news that doesn't fit anywhere else, that will be added to the top of this article, then we'll move on to assorted other official, confirmed details. BUT...we've moved things like story rumors, spoilers, production art, and our own speculations to page two in order to let the people who want to remain spoiler-free do so. They're there if you want 'em, but as very little of that stuff is official or confirmed, and ALL of it can be considered spoilers, you move on to page two at your own risk.
Let's start with the latest and greatest...
The Latest News
While we now know a bit about most of the cast, thanks to things like names being revealed, for example, one character in particular has remained a mystery. That would be whoever Domhnall Gleeson is playing. It looks like that's about to change, though. There's a juicy report out there about the nature of his character, and it's one that is so thoroughly spoiler-filled that we don't want to put it up top without giving you a warning about it first. If you want the details on that one, click here, but if you want to remain spoiler-free, you might want to stay away.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer
Does this really need any introduction?
This trailer offers a great first look into the new characters, as well as our first glimpse of the Millennium Falcon since Return of the Jedi! Boy, it's been a very long time. It looks like a lot of those rumors we were talking about are true, after all.
We learned a whole lot more from the trailer in our analysis.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast
The cast of Star Wars: Episode VII is as follows: 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. It's likely that some of the new cast members will play the offspring of characters like Han, Luke, and Leia.
Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie will also be in the film in undisclosed roles. Additionally, Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, has joined the cast. What role she's playing remains to be seen, but there's some serious speculation about a rather obvious choice. Christina Chong is also on board in an unnamed role. Game of Thrones' Miltos Yerolemou also has a small role.
Lizo Mzimba has been tweeting out confirmation of a number of minor roles. According to him Jessica Henwick (Nymeria in Game of Thrones season 5), James McCardle (as someone named "Xavier), Tony Bailey (as a Stormtrooper...guess they aren't clones anymore!), and Sam Carr (as a Padawan of some sort). Some badasses from The Raid 2 have also joined up.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Characters
We now know that the little soccer ball droid is called BB-88. Oscar Isaac is Poe Dameron. John Boyega is Finn. Daisy Ridley is Rey. The mysterious hooded man with the crazy lightsaber is called Kylo Ren. Domhnall Gleeson is a major character, despite the reluctance to showcase him (so far). We'll get to that in a second...
There are more character and story details on page 2 of this article, where we've put all the rumors and production art, by the way...
Everything Else
J.J Abrams is directing Star Wars: Episode VII. Initial press releases reported that the script would be written by Michael Arndt, scriptwriter of Toy Story 3, but in October of 2013 it was announced that Kasdan and Abrams had taken over scriptwriting duties.
Principal photography is complete! Of course, in a Star Wars movie, this is barely half the battle, of course. Unsurprisingly, John Williams will be returning to provide the music, as will sound designer Ben Burtt and supervising sound editor Matthew Wood. Fight coordinator Nick Gillard said on Twitter that he is not working on the new films.
If the film sticks to that December 18, 2015 release date it will be the first live action Star Wars film not to be released in May.
Now, as we move on to this next page, beware, as that's where the unconfirmed rumors, speculation, and potential spoilers begin...