While dates have been wrangled with and writing teams have changed, there’s still not been a lot to say about the December 18th, 2015 release of the untitled Star Wars: Episode VII film. That’s potentially change a bit as the usually solid folks at Heat Vision have done some checking with their sources and found out a few different things. One of the biggest and potentially controversial changes is that when Michael Arndt left the screenplay process due to deadline issues and J.J. Abrams and his team took over, they decided to shift the focus. Originally, it was seen as a launching point for the next (younger) generation of characters while those from the Original Trilogy would provide cameos/supporting roles in order to bridge things.
But apparently Abrams felt that Episode VII should be the true swan song for the original cast, giving them one more rousing adventure and time in the sun for both them and the fans before passing the torch. Which allows the next generation characters to play supporting roles here, rather than having to carry the film themselves which could be quite problematic in a lot of ways.
Casting choices are completely up in the air because of this in how they’re approaching it, but some things are surfacing. Abrams has reportedly been seeing just about anyone and everyone since beginning this process, but there are some new names that are cropping up. Jesse Plemons is a name that came up recently as a potential son of Skywalker as well as word of Adam Driver coming up here and there. On the new side of things, apparently Hugo Weaving is being looked at as a potential Imperial role that could bring some real menace to the villainous side while Michael Fassbender’s name has been tossed around as well. Add in some mention of a potential daughter/granddaughter for Obi-wan Kenobi as well and it certainly sends a lot of mixed signals, but you also have to figure that there is some disinformation spread out there as well.
Abrams took over the scripting previously for the film in conjunction with Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter and director for The Empire Strikes Back.
