Star Wars Episode VII Cast Profiles

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last several months, you should be aware by now that there's a new Star Wars movie coming out late next year. Up until now details about the new film's plot and characters have been pretty much non-existent but with principal photography scheduled to start soon news about the casting was bound to start trickling out. And so, after many months of countless internet rumours about who would be in the movie and who wouldn't, the good folks at Disney and Lucasfilm have finally made the official casting announcement. Check out who's made the cut after the jump.

 
From the official Star Wars website:  
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. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.

By now we're all familiar with the original cast so there's nothing new or unexpected in that part of the press release. What's more intriguing is finding out who the new guys and girl are so here's a brief rundown of each of the new cast members.

John Boyega

 
John Boyega is a 22 year-old Nigerian-British actor most famous for his role as a gang-leader called Moses in the brilliant British indie sci-fi film called Attack The Block. The fact that he is the first name on the list has led many to speculate that he could be the lead in the film but that has neither been confirmed nor denied by the producers. If it does turn out to be true though it would be quite a fantastic achievement for a young black actor to nab the lead role in a new trilogy of Star Wars films. Fingers crossed that this particular rumour turns out to be true.

Daisy Ridley

 Daisy Ridley is the one cast member that even I have never heard of before so she could easily be either the ace or the joker in the pack. According to her Wikipedia page she’s featured in the recent BBC Entertainment TV show Mr Selfridge and will next appear in The Inbetweeners Movie 2. Apart from that and a few other shows she hasn’t really had too many other high-profile roles so we’ll just have to wait until Episode VII comes out to see how she fares in a major role.

Adam Driver

 Adam Driver you’ll be familiar with as Adam from Lena Dunham’s TV show GIRLS. He’s also had a couple of notable appearances in films such as J. Edgar, Lincoln and Inside Llewyn Davis. Overall he’s another young and talented actor with a bright future ahead of him.

Oscar Isaac

Oscar Isaac is a veteran TV and film actor with over 12 years’ worth of industry experience with roles in films such as Body of Lies, Drive and The Bourne Legacy. His breakthrough role came last year with his critically-acclaimed performance in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis where he played the lead character.

Andy Serkis

Andy Serkis is probably one of the best actors that most people have never heard of. The reason for this is that he specialises in performance capture acting and therefore in his most memorable roles the audience only sees the end product which is a computer generated character. Amongst others he has played King Kong in the eponymous 2005 film, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Captain Haddock on 2011’s The Adventures of Tintin and Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.  On the basis of such a unique resume it appears quite likely that he will once again play a CGI character, possibly even a villain.

Domhnall Gleeson

Domhnall Gleeson is a 30 year-old Irish actor who, just like Oscar Isaac above, has featured in supporting roles in dozens of films over a decade long career. Lookout for him in this year’s Unbroken which even at this early stage is already attracting awards season buzz.

Max von Sydow

85 year-old Max von Sydow is the true elder statesman of the crew with a career span longer than all of the other cast members have been alive. His most recent high-profile role was in 2011’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close where his performance as The Renter earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. 

What do you think of the cast? Is there anyone else who you would like to see in the next Star Wars film? Tell us your thoughts below in the comments section.