Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced

Like so many other people, I’ve jumped on the link to read the announcement for Star Wars Episode VII cast. No matter what, I was excited that we finally got actual information.

Source: Starwars.com

I was thrilled to see the old timers confirmed and I had a little emotional moment to say the least. Seeing the picture was really a big thing. I am glad that the old generation will still be there, despite being very excited about the upcoming new characters.

Andy Serkis was a nice addition though for me, the biggest and best surprise was Max von Sydow. I’m so glad that he is part of the cast. I also find it interesting that for a family (kid?) oriented movie, they have such a large panel of older cast members, including one of the female ones (i.e. Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia). It is something worthy of mentioning and having a mature female character in main cast is great. I am very much looking forward to John Boyega’s performance (I admit it’d be cool if he were Lando’s son and that we see Billy Dee Williams in episodes VIII and/or IX. I want to see Lando again!).

Most of the other new names I had to check on the IMDB to either get acquainted or remember in what I had seen them. I’m curious about what they will bring to the Star Wars universe.

Past the first thrill and squealing of the first few minutes (I mean, we finally get the cast announcement and okay, I’ll admit I’m still squealing because official Star Wars new…) I found it a bit frustrating to see how many white people there were on the list. The one thing I’m waiting for is to see whether it will translate in the same ‘whiteness’ ratio on screen as we don’t know whether some will be portraying aliens or anything. Thing is, I’d rather have a more diverse cast, but I am nevertheless curious to see how things will turn out in terms of characters.

But, one other woman in the cast besides Carrie Fisher? Really? In a way, it’s progress compared to the two previous trilogies (as the only other time we truly had two “main” female cast members was Episode I with Portman and August for Padme and Shmi). Yet, I was hoping for something different. It’s a disappointment but if it means two great female characters instead of three or four not so interesting ones, well, I’ll take the first option.

In a nutshell, I can live with this cast announcement, and am still very much looking forward to Star Wars Episode VII.

May the Force be with the cast and crew!