British Comic Actor Ade Edmondson Cast STAR WARS VIII

British comic actor Ade Edmondson is the latest edition to the Star Wars VIII cast.

Reportedly, Edmondson impressed both the film’s director Rian Johnson and producer JJ Abrams, with Abrams looking to the pool of British actors for new cast members following his own positive experiences with them on last year’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The news is being broken by the British tabloid The Sun, so I suppose that the usual cautions about the British tabloid press apply.

If true, though, it could probably be one of the most unusual pieces of casting in the franchise’s history.

Edmondson came out of the British alternative comedy scene of the late 1970s/early 80s, a comedy companion to the rise of punk music. He first gained national recognition as part of the casto f the groundbreaking comedy The Young Ones as punk college student Vyvyn. With fellow Young Ones cast mate Rik Mayall, he co-starred in the popular comedy Bottom. Appearing in Star Wars won’t be his first dramatic role. Earlier this year he was part of the cast of a miniseries adaptation of the classic Russian novel War & Peace for the BBC.

Episode VIII is currently shooting in London and is scheduled for a release in December 2017.