STAR WARS VII Cast Announced!

I had a feeling when it got out that there was a table reading of the Star Wars VII script today, a casting announcement would be far behind. And I was right.

The official Star Wars Facebook page ran a picture from said table reading (which you can see above, click to make bigger) with a list of the players involved:

The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.

Director J.J. Abrams says, “We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”

Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer.

I was going to give you a run down of the cast and where you might have seen them before, but Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat had already beat me to it. Suffice it to day, it’s the original cast minus Billy Dee Williams, one complete unknown, a bunch of actors who have been receiving buzz from much talked about projects over the past year or so, and Max Von Sydow.

Now the big discussion point will be who will is playing what. Adam Driver was long rumored to be playing a villain in the film, and it’s too bad that the Expanded Universe is no longer in play, because Domhnall Gleeson would be perfect to play Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker’s son Ben.

I’m sure more information will become known before December 2015.