Take a meeting, take a number. Several dozen actors in Hollywood are taking meetings with J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and the producers of “Star Wars: Episode VII.” You can add to that mix Lupita Nyong’o, who recently won an Oscar for her role in Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave.”
With “Girls” star Adam Driver being the only name that looks locked in right now (he’ll play the new Darth Vader-like baddie apparently), contenders include John Boyega (“Attack The Block“), Ed Speleers (aka Jimmy Kent from “Downton Abbey“), theatre actors Matthew James Thomas and Ray Fisher, and the already-rumored “Breaking Bad” and “Friday Night Lights” star Jesse Plemons.
There hasn’t been too much word of females in the mix for ‘Star Wars’ thus far. One early name that popped up, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” star Saoirse Ronan already confirmed to us that she took meetings, but she won’t be in the movie.
Nyong’o is apparently in the running for a courtroom drama, “The Whole Truth,” starring Daniel Craig. There’s no word on what ‘Star Wars’ role she could be up for, but THR says “one possibility is that of a descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which has been described as a non-Caucasian role. That is separate from the search for two roles, female and male, for characters in their twenties.” That last part probably means, not one of the main leads rumored to be the children of Han and Leia. Latino Review first reported the news.