We still don’t know who’s related to who, or what Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia have been doing in the three decades since 1983’s Return of the Jedi. But Vanity Fair has revealed some vital snippets of information about the characters played by Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley and Lupita Nyong’o in JJ Abrams’ forthcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Ahead of its new issue, which will feature a series of shots from the film’s Pinewood set by thephotographer Annie Leibovitz, the magazine has confirmed that Driver will play Kylo Ren – likely a villain, and the wielder of the triple-pronged lightsaber seen in early trailers. He is seen marshalling a pair of Stormtroopers loyal to the evil First Order in a new shot.
Ridley plays a character named Rey, and the fact that the character’s surname has not been revealed prompted speculation that she will be related to past heroes. Ridley is shown taking direction from Abrams, riding her speeder on the desert planet Jakku.
Finally, Nyong’o is revealed to be playing a CGI character, Maz Kanata, whose look remains secret for now. Her character is described as a pirate, and was created using mo-cap technology.
In other Star Wars news, bounty hunter and fan favourite Boba Fett will finally move centre stage in a forthcoming spin-off movie, reports online magazine The Wrap.
Fett, the mercenary who captured Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, will headline Disney’s second “anthology” movie.
The studio, which bought all rights to the space opera saga in October 2012 for $4.05bn, is producing a number of spin-off films as well as a new central trilogy. The Fett story follows the first spin-off Star Wars: Rogue One, which will hit cinemas in December 2016 with Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards directing, and The Force Awakens, which kicks off the new era this December.
Speculation has been rife that Fett would get his own film ever since Disney revealed plans to revisit some of the saga’s most iconic characters in standalone “origins” movies. Rogue One is rumoured to be about X-Wing pilots, and Han Solo, Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi have also been tipped to get their own films.
According to The Wrap, the Boba Fett project is the same movie from which the Chronicle and Fantastic Four director Josh Trank exited on Friday over “creative differences”. Disney will now search for a new film-maker to bring the proposition to cinemas.
Fett, a Mandalorian warrior, was portrayed by British actor Jeremy Bulloch in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. His back story was later told in 2002’s Attack of the Clones, in which it was revealed that Boba is a clone of his “father” Jango Fett, whose DNA was harvested for a clone army that would eventually become the imperial Stormtroopers.
The second Star Wars spin-off movie is reportedly due in 2018. Disney has not confirmed The Wrap’s report.
