When it was duly noted by every single news agency on the planet that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammil were all completely coincidentally in London at the same time this week, the rumours began to fly of an ofifcial announcement about the intended line-up for Star Wars VII. The film, directed by J J Abrams is due to start filming shortly for a much-anticpated 2015 release.
And lo, an announcement there came... and much excitement and adventure there was because an audience DOES crave these things. In fact, starwars.com fet a great disturbance in the Force and crashed.
Perhaps the photo below says it all - the first major script meeting involving the cast and, yes, look, there's the alter egos of Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker sat with Abrams and a cast of perhaps less familiar faces (though only for the time being). Anthony Daniels (C3PO), Kenny Baker (R2D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) are also returning.
The new faces include John Boyega (Attack the Block, 24: Live Another Day), newcomer Daisy Ridley (Scrawl, Casualty), Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Lewelyn Davis, The Two Faces of January) Andy Serkis (who we might assume is closely involved with a CGI role?), Domhall Gleeson (Dredd, Ex Machina and once rumoured to be in the running for Doctor Who) and Max Von Sydow (the veteran, hugely respected actor, but perhaps still infamous as Ming the Merciless!).
Very little is known about the story of this seventh chapter except that it appears to be set around thirty years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Recent rumours suggest that Harrison Ford / Han Solo has a bigger cental role to play than one might have suspected, but we expect to hear more as production begins...
