The Star Wars: Episode VII seems to have received a mixture of support and disdain. The largest point of contention appears to be the lack of females among the newly announced cast with Daisy Ridley joining Carrie Fisher as the only two females named along with 11 males. Granted, two of those males are playing robots and another is playing a walking dog while two more — Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill — were part of the original trilogy, making it harder to replace them with a female Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Nevertheless, the cries were immediately heard and the response was swift.
First off, the announcement came earlier than anticipated as TheWrap reports Disney planned on revealing the entire cast on Sunday, May 4 (aka “Star Wars Day”), but word began to spread as the actors descended on London for the first table read, the studio wanted to get ahead of the cast names leaking early. However, as a result there was one name not yet revealed, that of a “major female role”, a role everyone believes to either be going to Maisie Richardson-Sellers and the same role Lupita Nyong’o was said to be up for before she signed on to star in Jon Favreau‘s The Jungle Book.
The announcement of this major female role, which has also been said to be a smaller role in the first of the upcoming new trilogy and becoming larger over the next two films, may be announced this Sunday, possibly with even more news revealed at the same time. Could it be the film’s official title?
As for that official cast, here it is again, beginning with Attack the Block star John Boyega followed by fellow newcomers to the Star Wars universe, Daisy Ridley (“Mr. Selfridge”), Adam Driver (“Girls”), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Domhnall Gleeson (About Time), Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal). Returning stars include Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Anthony Daniels as C3-PO, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca and Kenny Baker as R2-D2.
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.
