This week, news circulated that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford had all been spotted in London, reigniting the long-ago-basically-confirmed rumors that the big three would be appearing in the latest installment of “Star Wars” which is due in December, 2015, and which begins filming there soon. (That’s Episode Seven, if you’re keeping track, and, blessedly, we’re counting up from here on out.) It was George Lucas who spilled about a reunion last March, when, in a seemingly offhand remark in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he mentioned that the three were in casting negotiations. These days, with Lucasfilm now owned by Disney, Lucas has described his role on the new movie as mostly advisory—what shape are the spaceships supposed to be, etc.—and perhaps his casting scoop was one final Jedi mind trick power move.
Regardless, this is J. J. Abrams’s space opera now, and on Tuesday the producers released a photo that revealed the rest of the new cast. Nerd joy: There’s Peter Mayhew, now sixty-nine years old and still a bit north of seven foot two, back as Chewbacca. Not pictured but promised (unless that is him actually inside the robot) is Kenny Baker, seventy-nine and a bit south of four feet, again playing R2-D2. There, next to Mark Hamill, is the beloved bald spot of Anthony Daniels, who is sixty-nine and exactly average height, soon again to be golden as C-3PO. And from other universes of nerddom it’s Andy Serkis, Gollum from “Lord of the Rings,” and Domhnall Gleeson, whom I’m told was in some of the “Harry Potter” movies. Anyone from Narnia in the house? But wait, where the hell is Billy Dee Williams? Poor Lando. Is this the final cosmic comeuppance for the Cloud City double cross? Also, looks like an awful lot of dudes in the room.
Also present is the screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, credited with the best script of the series, for “The Empire Strikes Back,” and also for the lesser “Return of the Jedi” (though blame the Ewoks, surely, on Lucas). He’s back on board, cowriter of the movie with Abrams, and count this fan as hoping that Kasdan fought hard for a “Big Chill”-style house party scene on Tatooine with Han, Luke, and Leia. Did they like Motown a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away? Likely not, but at least there will be no Jar Jar Binks this time, right? Right?
Which brings us to the newbies. The first fresh face is eighty-five years old, Max von Sydow, also not pictured, who was in the not good “Exorcist” sequel in 1977, when “Star Wars” first came out. Other newbies are in fact young: Adam Driver (“Girls”) and Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) will attempt to out-brood each other. (The old “Star Wars” really didn’t have enough brooding, or singing, actually, which we know Isaac can do.) The British actor John Boyega was born in the nineties. The actress Daisy Ridley doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page as of half past two P.M. on Tuesday. (Though that will now change, as people on the Internet are good at “Star Wars.”) Vanity Fair informs that she’s so far mostly appeared on British TV. It’s these two who are now the early favorites for the coveted Mark Hamill-Jake Lloyd-Hayden Christensen Cup for post “Star Wars” anonymity. Good luck.
What will these people be doing, saying, gesturing toward, jumping over, ducking beneath, moving with their minds, and brandishing onscreen in a year and half? There’s not much of a clue as yet. Last week, Disney announced that the wellspring of officially licensed “Star Wars” spinoff stories, told in comic books, novels, and video games, and known as the Expanded Universe, will not inform the upcoming trilogy. This will likely be the kids’ show, but I’ll be rooting for the oldsters. There have been reports that Hamill and Fisher had been dispatched to the gym to get in shape, though whether that is for purely cosmetic purposes, or else for A.A.R.P.-level Jedi fighting maneuvers, is anyone’s guess. (Fisher recently joked that she would let her hair go white and wear it in double-cinnamon-bun style.) R2 will beep. 3PO will bumble. Chewy will do some of this. I imagine that Ford, as Han Solo, will blast someone, and, if Abrams is smart, he’ll let him shoot first.
J. J. Abrams 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. Photograph by David James.
