A spokesman for Benedict Cumberbatch told The New York Daily News that there’s “no truth” to the rumors that he’s been cast in Episode VII. “I think the rumors are circling because JJ and Benedict have just recently had a wonderful time working together on Star Trek.” If you want more reasoning, Bryan Young and our other pals at Full of Sith discussed the Cumberrumor on their latest podcast.
Take the denial as you will, but please feel free to quit it with the faux-castings of Thrawn and the tired “recasting” jokes at any point.
I wouldn’t believe everything they say in their statement. They could still be negotiating the deal, so technically he is not in yet.
Cumberbatch is an amazing actor, but having recently been established as a major TREK villain, I am not on board with this move one bit. Using the same Director is one thing, but the same actors as well? C’mon – that’s a little too much.
I wonder if they’ve considered Daniel Day Lewis at all?
It’s true you can’t really take denials at 100% at this point. But I have been pretty skeptical on this one.
As for Daniel Day-Lewis, I think expecting him to take a Star Wars role is right up there with people who say they want Stephen King to write a Star Wars novel: Deeply unrealistic and the most wishful of wishful thinking. They might love to have him, they could approach him, but I don’t think they’d wait very long for a very firm denial.
Really? Who would have thought that they would cast Liam Neeson in a Star Wars film?
Liam Neeson with a handful of Oscarbait in the late 90s is not Daniel Day-Lewis in 2012 with a full career of the stuff.
I don’t see DDL pulling a Johnny Depp.
What I’m getting at here is that the sequels need to be approached from left field. A lot of fan speculation seems unable to think outside the box. All they can come up with are EU characters and actors who have been in other mega franchises previously.
The reason I mentioned Lewis was his connection to Kennedy via Lincoln and of course his diverse talent. It doesn’t necessarily have to be DDL, just someone of that ilk.
In that light, yes. Fans are horrible at casting, witness Cumberbatch = Sherlock/Khan = Thrawn, or, to jump to another recent wannabee casting, Bryan Cranston = Walter White = Lex Luthor. No creativity there at all.
I don’t see DDL in Star Wars, at least not as any more than a brief cameo if he happens to be London at the proper time. He’s just not one of those actors who seems willing to mix up a prestige slate with more mainstream fair. (Though there are certainly plenty of well-known actors who do.) But maybe the next DDL is out there somewhere. And with a director who can actually deal with actors, hopefully we can avoid a Natalie Portman situation this time around. I hope they cast new faces for new characters, people we haven’t seen a thousand or even a dozen times before. But the thing is, I doubt those names are going to drive that much traffic for the rumor sites – Certainly Latino Review got more mileage out of ‘pretty boys’ Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron than they did the distinctly meh Alex Pettyfer and the nearly unknown/Hey It’s That Girl Rachel Hurd-Wood.
Daniel Day-Lewis? Very unlikely. Edward Norton might be an option, though. After all, he was the Hulk, and he played a completely masked and uncredited leper king in Kingdom of Heaven, so ego-wise he might be up for it. Also on my short list of “wouldn’t those be great” names for the sequels: Kevin Spacey and David Strathairn. Both have done somewhat more kid-oriented stuff – Spacey was Lex Luthor, Strathairn did that Spiderwick movie -, so they might be up for a trip to a galaxy far, far away.
And no, I don’t think we’ll ever see either DDL or any of my guys in Star Wars. But it would be a blast.
That’s more than enough name-dropping, guys. Let’s not.
It’ll all come out in the wash. Oscar winners coming into films of this ilk are becoming increasingly common (Glenn Close for Guardians of the galaxy, Robert Redfor for Winter Soldier) so nothing is impossible. I think there is some mileage in the Cumberrumour (love that) but if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised either.
We’re at that stage where we don’t know enough to comment on stuff confidently, but know just enough to speculate wildly. Rumours are rumours and we’ll have them right up to the launch date, but while you have Lucasfilm (working closely with fan groups) and Bad Robot (denying everything, pointing to the ‘Mystery Box’ and hiding the truth right up until you sit down with your popcorn and nachos) working on the same project then it’s going to be VERY interesting. Crystal Skull had similar issues with Lucasfilm and Amblin falling out. Hope that’s avoided on Ep7.