Schmoes Know claims to have a source who’s seen the casting breakdown from J.J. Abrams. They claim the storyline involves the training of Jaina and Jacen Solo by Luke Skywalker – and that the below is directly cut and pasted from the casting breakdown:
Storyline: Two 17 year old twins, a girl and a boy, are trained by their uncle Luke to be the greatest Jedi’s in the galaxy. Problems arise when the male twin turns to the dark side.
Jaina Solo – Female, 17 years old, lead. – Jacen’s twin sister, one of the greatest Jedi’s in the galaxy, trained by her uncle Luke Skywalker
Jacen Solo – Male, 17 years old, lead – Jaina’s twin brother, one of the greatest Jedi’s in the world. A loner who is constantly struggling with the idea of what’s right and what’s wrong. Starts to turn to the dark side. Full of conviction that what he is doing is the “right thing”. Will eventually become Darth Caedus.
Of course, I’m deeply skeptical, and not just because this supposed ‘breakdown’ uses the term ‘Jedi’s.’ (Though that helps, it’s not out of the question – I doubt Pablo and co are personally copy-editing every production document, and we’ve seen Lucas do as he wills with in-universe grammar and pronunciation for years.)
But this is pretty straight from the novels, right down to Caedus, and that gives me pause. It’s far too easy to believe that someone who spent an hour or two at Wookieepedia threw this together. It could be their source messing around, it could be the Bad Robot folks testing for leaks – and, yeah, it could be true. But I wouldn’t start betting just yet
UPDATE #1: Bryan over at Big Shiny Robot has more reasons why this is probably false.
UPDATE #2: Collider has heard, independently of the first report, that Episode VII is looking to cast a son of Han Solo, though they’re also doubtful of the full Schmoes Know ‘scoop.’
UPDATE #3: HitFix’s Drew McWeeny is pretty adamant that this is fabricated as well, and that the chances of any EU making it to the screen are extremely slim. He does say that ILM has already begun work on what may be “the most elaborate physical build they’ve done for the effects team since Return Of The Jedi.”
Plus, isn’t 17 way too young to have the OT cast still realistically portraying themselves?
This is so fake the Secret Service is investigating.
Yawn. New characters, please. Or at least ones that aren’t boring.
THANK YOU EDWARD SNOWDEN FOR LEAKING THIS INFO.
Well, the plot would be “Star Warsy” enough to be true – plus it would remind of the take they have on Marvel: follow main ideas in canon but put them together differently and give them a twist.
But Nanci’s point is very relevant too. I don’t think the big 3 can play younger tahn themselves…
The “Darth Caedus” thing is the biggest thing wrong with this, the thing that makes me know it’s false. Sorry, but I seriously doubt we’re going to film-canon-enshrine a name that was literally chosen in an online poll.
Are you guys suggesting there will be no lifesavers and Jedi’s in this Extended Universe tale?
I could see them running with training the kids – and even the Solos having twins… but, yeah.
Although, if there are Vong, I’ll be really annoyed. I’d be sort of happy if they rebooted the EU when Jaina and Jacen were 17.
so much win in these comments
@ Nanci,
Well, if, as many people are speculating, the movie will star Han & Leia or Luke’s kids, I can’t imagine that they’ll be much older than 17 (20 years old at max) in order to appeal to the all important teenage moviegoing demographic. This means that even if this rumor isn’t true we’re probably looking at the characters having kids late in their lives.
I think the age thing will get weird either way if they give the Big Three kids that are 40 years younger. It was weird in Indy 4, and Captain Solo isn’t getting any younger.
Best way to handle it imho: Give Luke an apprentice who rocks in her own right and leave Han and Leia virtually out of the story.
As for the rumor: I doubt any casting agency (or whatever) has gotten anything even half as detailed from either Lfl or Abrams in the last thirty years. Remember the Matt Lanter story? He went in without even knowing he was auditioning for Anakin. And that was a known character. No way will we get character names and bios by way of a fishy “insider“ source this time around. I’d rather bet money on somewhat revealing domain name registrations, and even that might take until spring 2015.
So yeah: Faky fake-a-ding.
Why bring in guys like Larry Kasdan and Simon Kinberg, if they’re simply going to tell pre-existing EU stories?
If it sounds like Bantha Poodoo, then it probably is.
That original article page has 19 exclamation points on it. Heh.
If it had 20, then I might believe what they’re saying.
Jokes aside, I’d feel quite let down if after all this build up, we’re just getting some recycled EU story.
I want new characters, new conflicts, unexpected twists and most of all – I want it to challenge my perception of Star Wars. I’ve been a fan since 1977 and think I know a GFFA extremely well. I want Episode VII to knock me off my feet and onto my arse!
Only 19 exclamation points? AICN would have included at least 26.