With Star Wars: Episode VII set to begin production in the coming weeks, rumour and speculation is going into overdrive, and The Hollywood Reporter has some doozy's of ones that potentially let us know more about the plot, which has of course gone into the usual JJ Abrams lock down. They say sources claim that Michael Fassbender, Adam Driver (from the t.v. show Girls), and Hugo Weaving have all entered the cast race (which at one point included Benedict Cumberbatch, Saorise Ronan, and Chiwetel Ejiofor), meeting with Abrams over the last few months. The roles they are up for are undisclosed, except for Weaving, who is said to have met for the part of an Imperial Commander. Another rumour has also surfaced that a twenty something actress, of either mixed race or black, is being sought to play Obi-Wan Kenobi's daughter or granddaughter.
Now onto the story. With original scriptwriter Michael Arndt leaving the project in October, and Abrams and Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark co-writer Lawrence Kasdan taking over scripting duties, the story has understandably gotten a bit of an over haul. The original script was said to focus on the children of Luke, Han, and Leia, with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher taking supporting roles. Now the new direction is to make the older guard the focus, with Episode VII acting as a send off to the classic characters, before their offspring take center stage with Episode VIII and IX. Of all the rumours to surface about this project (and there have been MANY) this sounds the most plausible, especially when you consider Abrams took a similar approach to Star Trek. But again it's all speculation at this stage, and I expect we'll hear a lot more before production stars and we get something concrete.
