There are a lot of names in this story from The Hollywood Reporter on the many actors who are vying for a shot at the role of young Han Solo. So many names. I wouldn’t count on anyone making the finals yet, though:
“This has been the easiest movie to audition for,” says an agent with a client who has auditioned. “They are seeing everyone.”
We do learn that the film’s code name is “Red Cup.” (Naturally!)
The young Han Solo spinoff film will be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan. It’s expected to begin shooting in January 2017. The release date has been announced as May 25, 2018.
The BBC’s Lizo Mzimba found that Riz Ahmed is listed as playing ‘Bodhi Rook’ in Rogue One on both his Spotlight and agent’s listings.
His castmate Mads Mikkelsen did sign a poster as ‘Galen’ earlier this year, but this is certainly looks like our first full name. (And who even knows if that one stuck, considering how much fans love to cling to and conspirify on random EUisms?)
Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One is currently filming for a December 2016 release.
“I have now made four Star Wars movies. That’s more than enough,” Lawrence Kasdan told the German tabloid Bild (via The Hollywood Reporter.)
Kasdan co-wrote and produced The Force Awakens, co-wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and will be co-writing the upcoming Han Solo film with his son Jon.
The solo Solo film is due out May 25, 2018 and will be directed by The LEGO Movie’s Christopher Miller and Phil Lord.
In an article in, of all things, The CostCo Connection, Kathleen Kennedy maintains that “the saga films focus on the Skywalker family saga,” while the Anthology spin-offs “offer opportunities to explore fresh characters, new storylines and a variety of genres inside the Star Wars universe.”
None of that is exactly new, but it’s certainly nice to have some clear lines drawn in the sand.
TMZ found Rogue One filming, and naturally, there are pictures. The shots are from the air, so don’t expect anything super detailed, but there are a few possible spoilers if you’re paranoid of that sort of thing.
Today’s crazy rumor comes to us from The Daily Mail, so be sure to treat it with the upmost sincerity.
The Mail says that Rogue One will feature a “digitally recreated” Peter Cushing reprising Grand Moff Tarkin. Okay!
To their credit, it is somewhat plausible, given the great strides we’ve seen in digital makeup recently, but the performance would also be under far greater scrutiny… Of course, we also heard similar rumors for Revenge of the Sith, where young Tarkin (played by Wayne Pygram and a lot of makeup) showed up only briefly with no actual lines. But the article also goes on to describe (presumably) ILMers recreating his legs, which seems a bit disingenuous when you could hire a talented stand-in. Maybe their source is actually talking about Battlefront?
Felicity Jones’ character is indeed front and center of Rogue One so far, and no one is unhappy with the racial diversity of the ensemble, but there has been some very definitepushback on yet another cast that is – at least initially – very low on women. Will we see more ladies added like we did with The Force Awakens or is this just the latest example of the Smurfette Principle in action?
We got our first look and additional cast and crew for Gareth Edward’s Rogue One at D23 today. In addition to Felicity Jones, who was announced previously, the Lucasfilm confirms rumors of Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, and Forest Whitaker. They also added Hannibals’ Mads Mikkelsen and Alan Tudyk (Firefly, A Knight’s Tale) whose role is performance-capture.
Additionally, it appears that the ‘Anthology’ branding has been somewhat dropped: The official logo for the film now says “A Star Wars Story.”
Han’s prequel won’t go back quite as far into his past as The Phantom Menace did with Anakin Skywalker. Han will “definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s,” Kathleen Kennedy told Entertainment Weekly. “We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.” She also hints as to the tone of the film, but as for plot? What should remain a mystery?
“Those are exactly the questions we’re asking,” Kennedy says. “There’s got to be a reason for [the stand-alone film] to be. And obviously the thing that Star Wars has always done so well is it doesn’t spend a lot of time [explaining] the stories that have come before. We don’t want to do that either. We don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.”
The film was one of several ideas floating around, and it appealed to was Lawrence Kasdan:
“They said, ‘Here are the things that we’d like to make movies about,’ and I said, ‘Oh, well, Han Solo. I would write a movie about Han Solo. He’s always been my favorite.’ And that’s the job that I took,” Kasdan says.
As for the now-third Anthology movie, the one developed by Simon Kinberg, it’s still in the mix. (And rumored to be about Boba Fett, but isn’t everything?) They haven’t hired a new director to replace Josh Trank yet, but it will likely come out in 2020.
And there’ll be yet more Star Wars out of EW tomorrow…
