In a lengthy profile in The Hollywood Reporter, Benedict Cumberbatch, the man of the hour following his deliciously villainous turn in this summer’s blockbuster “Star Trek Into Darkness” and in anticipation of a streak of hotly anticipated fall movies in the form of “The Fifth Estate,” “12 Years a Slave,” “August: Osage County” and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the British thespian clarified some points regarding his involvement in “Star Wars: Episode VII,” including his reasons for leaving Gothic horror movie “Crimson Peak.” He also expressed interest in being in the next film directed by Gary Oldman. Weird British character actors have to stick together!
After mentioning how he’d like to be in the next film directed by Gary Oldman (so far he has a lone directorial credit, 1997’s underrated drama “Nil by Mouth“), the attention, of course, turned to ‘Star Wars,’ which will be helmed by his ‘Into Darkness’ director J.J. Abrams. “I don’t know. Who knows, who knows? Nothing is known of that. I worked with J.J. Obviously, he knows. Everyone who wants to be part of that film, they know about.”
While it seems like a pretty clear denial of his involvement, there will undoubtedly be endless speculation of how he dodged the question and didn’t really give an answer. Because people really, really want Cumberbatch to be in ‘Star Wars,’ which is understandable. It’s just that he probably isn’t in ‘Star Wars.’
At least one cog in the wheel of ‘Star Wars’ theorizing has been completely shot down: many surmised that he had dropped out of Guillermo del Toro‘s Gothic horror movie “Crimson Peak” because he was offered a role in ‘Star Wars’ and the schedules would conflict (Tom Hiddleston would eventually replace him). Cumberbatch says that this simply isn’t true. “Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. That was nothing to do with it at all. [It was] between me and Guillermo, to be honest. It was amicable, and that’s all I’m going to say.” Of course it was.
Still, fanboys will still keep hoping and wishing and dreaming for Cumberbatch to join the galaxy far, far away, even if it is looking less and less likely.