Lucasfilm has been releasing details about the upcoming (and still untitled) Star Wars Episode VII on the slowest of drip feeds — and the latest news is practically a tidal wave by comparison.
The Disney-owned company announced Tuesday that Episode VII will feature a "trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces." The movie will commence principal photography at Pinewood Studios outside London in May.
See also: Star Wars VII: The Return of Luke, Leia and Han?
The "trio of new young leads" suggests that director J.J. Abrams has concluded his year-long hunt for talent to represent the next generation of heroes. It seems, then, that the movie is consciously trying to echo the Han, Luke and Leia triumvirate. Open casting for the roles took place in November in both the U.S. and the UK.
More recently, casting rumors have included almost every hot young actor in Hollywood — from Girls actor Adam Driver, said to play the villain, to Breaking Bad antagonist Jesse Plemons and 12 Years a Slave Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o.
The "familiar faces" line in Lucasfilm's announcement hints at the movie's worst-kept secret — the return of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in their original roles. George Lucas himself pretty much let that out of the bag talking to Bloomberg Businessweek in early 2013.
"We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation," Lucas said of Episode VII preparation before the Disney sale. "Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them." Then Lucas walked his statement back: "I won't say if the negotiations were successful or not."
The question of how central a role Han, Luke and Leia would take in the film appears to be at the center of script disputes. Original Episode VII writer Michael Arndt was said to want a quick passing of the torch, and had written a screenplay that focused on the next generation of actors.
But Abrams allegedly wanted the original trio to play a larger role in the movie, and brought veteran Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan on board to help him redraft the script along those lines.
Pinewood, in Buckinghamshire, isn't where the original Star Wars movie was shot — that would be Elstree Studios in South London. The Phantom Menace was shot at Leavesden Studios. Pinewood is better known as the home of James Bond and the original Superman series.