Fans have been endlessly speculating about Star Wars: Episode VII casting since the project was officially announced on October 30, 2012, but most of that speculation has been spent talking about the heroes. There has been endless chatter about whether or not the film will bring back Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, and whenever a casting report has come up with a young actor many have wondered if they will play Luke, Leia or Han's children. We haven't been hearing much about what's going on with the Dark Side of the Force, but that just make's today's news more exciting. According to Variety's sources, Girls star Adam Driver is now close to signing on to play the central villain in the upcoming sci-fi epic sequel.
The trade stresses that no deal is done yet, but says that the actor is very close to a deal and even calls him "the first cast member to be revealed for Walt Disney Studios and LucasFilm’s highly-anticipated Star Wars installment." He may not have signed on the dotted line just yet, but it would seem that the pen is definitely in his hand. There are obviously no details about the character that Driver may play, but sources say that he is said to be "in the vein" of the great Darth Vader.
This isn't the first time that we have heard Driver's name mentioned in connection with a mega upcoming blockbuster. In November there was a story that said the actor was being looked at to play Nightwing to Ben Affleck's Batman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel, but that report was shut down when Driver denied it a little more than a week later. I wonder if it was at the time he was actually starting to talk to the people behind Star Wars and found that the two projects interfered.
Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams and is based on a script that the filmmaker co-wrote with Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. As of now the only character that has been 100% confirmed to return for the sequel is R2-D2, but that's hardly a surprise. The Walt Disney Company and LucasFilm have set the film for a December 18, 2015 release date, and the plan is to start production this spring at Pinewood Studios in England.
In addition to being a regular on the HBO series Girls, Driver also recently had a small roles in movies like the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (where, ironically, he sang about not wanting to go to outer space), Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. He's a guy who has been looking for a big part like this for awhile, and now it seems that he has found it. The question is: are you excited? Answer our poll below and tell us what you think in the comments section!
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