Benedict Cumberbatch Latest STAR WARS EPISODE VII Casting Rumor

Just a few days ago, as we were wandering through a local cineplex, my girlfriend and I noted three posters for upcoming films featuring Benedict Cumberbatch. Since the British actor first broke big on the BBC’s Sherlock, he has been in high demand. And he may be in even more demand starting soon as the actor becomes the latest to be rumored under consideration for a role in J. J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII.

Film Chronicles (via Bleeding Cool) are the one bringing us this unsubstantiated report that Cumberbatch may be re-teaming with his Star Trek Into Darkness director. They point to an interview with Total Film that reinforces their conclusion –

I’ve already asked him [Abrams] if I can be a lightsaber and we’re in talks – about whirring sounds and the rates for the lights and everything [laughs].

“I thought, ‘Yeah, I grew up with them,’ and I just looked recently at when they were released and now I’m like, ‘No, I didn’t grow up with them, I was born with them.’ They were a huge part of my background, and my upbringing.

“I was much more connected to [Star Wars] as a kid, in the way that a lot of kids are because it’s immediate storytelling, very simple – a beautifully, outrageously simple narrative in a way – and a wonderful three-act melodrama, opera. And I loved them. I really, really loved those films and I always wanted to be Han Solo. Everything Harrison Ford did I just thought was the coolest thing ever.

As usual, this one’s just soem speculation and we probably won’t hear anything concrete until we get closer to the film’s January start date. It should be noted, though, that Cumberbatch recently dropped out of Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak for an unspecified reason. Given that Del TOro’s film is scheduled to start shooting around the same time that Episode VII is, should we be connecting some dots?

Either way though, it would be fun to see Cumberbatch in a Star Wars film.