We Cast The New Star Wars Film

The plot of the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Wars film is still under wraps, but a casting call that went out yesterday in the UK offers insight into how Episode VII might look.

The list, published on film blog Bleeding Cool, calls for one each of the following:

Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit.

Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking.

A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident.

Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’ t need to be particularly fit.

A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit.

Forty something male, fit, military type.

Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit.

They’re all pretty vague, and most of them could easily have been lifted from online dating profiles, but they nonetheless roused our interest.

Here’s who Junkee’s resident Star Wars geeks — Alasdair Duncan and Rob Newcombe — would like to see cast in each role. Take notes, J.J. Abrams.

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Late-teen female, independent, good sense of humour, fit:

ELLEN PAGE

If you want the new Star Wars films to be compelling, then you’d better start with a compelling performer. Ellen Page can convey smarts, cunning and wit all at once – from Hard Candy to Inception, her characters are always several steps ahead of anyone else in the film.

 

SAOIRSE RONAN

Ronan was spookily single-minded as the young assassin in Joe Wright’s Hanna, and luminous in the otherwise pretty awful Lovely Bones. She’s poised for a really big break — and Star Wars could be it.

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Young twenty-something male, witty and smart, fit but not traditionally good looking:

DEV PATEL

The young Skins star already has a few high-profile roles under his belt, like Slumdog Millionaire and The Newsroom. He’s nerdy and kind of goofy-looking, but in a totally hot and charismatic way.

 

MATTHEW LEWIS

 

The internet is obsessed with the Harry Potter hottie, who grew from awkward Neville Longbottom into a total, crooked-smiling babe. All he needs now is a memorable film role to kick off his post-Potter career.

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A late twentysomething male, fit, handsome and confident:

DONALD GLOVER

 

Donald Glover fits all the criteria for this role: fit and handsome, with confidence to spare. If his Community character is anything like real life, he’s already a total Star Wars nerd so he won’t need to do much research for the role. Plus, Glover was passed over for the role of Peter Parker in last year’s The Amazing Spider Man. Let’s make this happen.

 

JESSE EISENBERG

Eisenberg tends to play arch and arrogant characters, like his Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network — but that same sort of arrogance is what made Harrison Ford so compelling in the original Star Wars films. Eisenberg is such a good actor he could even have made Anakin Skywalker’s “I don’t like sand …” speech somewhat bearable in the prequel trilogy.

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Seventy-something male, with strong opinions and tough demeanour. Also doesn’t need to be particularly fit.

IAN MCSHANE

McShane experienced a late career Renaissance as the violent, tyrannical, but oddly endearing Al Swearengen on HBO’s Deadwood. Assuming this particular role is a mentor figure of some kind, 70-year-old McShane would slot neatly into the Star Wars tradition of distinguished British (and Irish) actors showing young Jedi the ropes.

 

KEN WATANABE

At 53, Watanabe is a bit young for this part — but given the amount of money they’re spending on this thing, surely they can afford to age him up? Not only does Watanabe have the kind of steely authority this part (probably) requires, but it would be a nice nod to one of the many Star Wars movies that could have been: the part of Obi Wan Kenobi was originally written for the late Toshiro Mifune.

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A second young female, also late teens, tough, smart and fit. 

BRENDA SONG

Brenda Song is that rarest of things: a Disney child star whose career didn’t go totally off the rails when she hit young adulthood. The fun and likeable Song has given some memorable supporting performances in The Social Network and New Girl. Now might be the time for something even bigger.

 

TAISSA FARMIGA

Taissa Farmiga played a cool yet deeply-troubled teen in American Horror Story, and followed that up with a performance as a cool yet deeply-troubled teen in Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring. Okay, there might be a pattern emerging here, but like her sister Vera, Taissa Farmiga is a fascinating and endlessly-watchable screen presence.

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Forty something male, fit, military type.

WALTON GOGGINS

Currently best known for his multi-layered role as hillbilly crime kingpin Boyd Crowder on FX’s Justified, Goggins might seem like a left-field choice for a military type — but if he could bring Boyd’s stillness and intensity to the role, he’d make for a memorably intimidating figure.

 

CHIWETEL EJIOFOR

As much as we love Star Wars, getting great performances out of actors was always worryingly low on George Lucas’s list of priorities. Now that Lucas has graciously handed his baby over to the House of Mouse, it’s time to stock the benches with actors who can turn that around. Casting someone with Ejiofor’s range and gravitas guarantees an interesting performance, and the man is long overdue for the role that makes him a household name.

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Thirtysomething male, intellectual. Apparently doesn’t need to be fit:

DILEEP RAO

Dileep Rao gave a memorable performance messing with the chemistry of dreams in Inception, and played an RDA xenobiolist in Avatar. In short, he’s your go-to guy if you want to lend a bit of intellectual heft to your blockbuster. Another advantage: His movies, on average, are among the highest-grossing in Hollywood. That surely has to be a good omen.

 

RICH SOMMER

Awwww, Rich Sommer! His Harry Crane, while hapless, kind of a pushover and endlessly prone to sticking his foot in his mouth, still manages to be one of the most likeable characters on Mad Men. He has worked mainly in TV, but that same likeability could easily translate to film. Plus, if the 35-year-old actor were to whip off his glasses, the result might well be a Clark Kent-to-Superman-style transformation.

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Alasdair Duncan is an author, freelance writer and video game-lover who has had work published in Crikey, The Drum, The Brag, Beat, Rip It Up, The Music Network, Rave Magazine, AXN Cult and Star Observer.

Rob Newcombe is a Brisbane-based freelance film critic, pop culture writer and comic-book nerd whose work has appeared in Rave Magazine and The Brag. You can follow him on twitter @undeadroger.