The Force Awakens General Star Wars Episode VII News/Speculation Thread - - - - - Part 14

[Dr. Evil]

Three Black people (four if you count Maise Richardson-Sellers, who hasn't been officially announced yet and five if Billy Dee gets a cameo) in a major sci fi movie?

As much flack as JJ Abrams gets from some people, he gets praise for this.

 

[Solidus]

There is also a video of Kevin Smith talking about his set video on /Film, but it has strong language so I won't link it here.

 

[Hunter Rider]

“The Star Wars universe has always been about discovering and nurturing young talent and in casting Episode VII we wanted to remain absolutely faithful to this tradition."

I see they are still trotting out this fallacy.

Parkour guy might be interesting for the action scenes I guess.

 

[X Knight]

yeah! more cast members......and we still don't know who is who.........lol

 

[Solidus]

I see they are still trotting out this fallacy.

How so?

 

[guyisnotcool]

yeah! more cast members......and we still don't know who is who.........lol

I heard Mark Hamill is playing some guy named Luke

 

[RobertDownerJr.]

Three Black people (four if you count Maise Richardson-Sellers, who hasn't been officially announced yet and five if Billy Dee gets a cameo) in a major sci fi movie?

As much flack as JJ Abrams gets from some people, he gets praise for this.

The Wachowskis also had a pretty diverse cast in the Matrix films.

 

[Dr. Evil]

The Wachowskis also had a pretty diverse cast in the Matrix films.

Sci fi films usually average one black person per film since 2004. This is a rarity. Hell, Disney's other big live action property, the Avengers is not as diverse as Star Wars 7 is going to be.

 

[Solidus]

Ya not the way to go about that. But I do agree he is a great actor. And I think has much more to offer. But I would try a more civilized tone.

 

[RobertDownerJr.]

Sci fi films usually average one black person per film since 2004. This is a rarity. Hell, Disney's other big live action property, the Avengers is not as diverse as Star Wars 7 is going to be.

I read a study from the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA that suggests that films with diverse casts earn more money at the box office and score higher ratings than productions with homogenous casts. I guess they're doing everything they can to make this Star Wars have the same impact as the originals

 

[Dr. Evil]

Boyega has enough talent to be in demand in Hollywood. They see something in him. He turned down two movies to be in this one.

 

[RobertDownerJr.]

Boyega was great in Imperial Dreams.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

My hypothesis since the first cast announcement has been that the "Rachel" and "Thomas" roles were for more than 2 people all along. They were looking for two in particular, but anyone they came across that they liked could be offered other parts.

http://www.ksdk.com/story/entertain...2/star-wars-casting-crew-in-st-louis/3508189/

As for Maisie, her cousin who I occasionally check up on on Instagram and Twitter, said a while back that she was excited Maisie got a role in the movie. (EDIT: I just checked it again, it seems it's been deleted on Instagram since the last I saw it. Hmm. The tweets are still there.)

Maisie's Facebook page doesn't have anything publicly on it now except for some "Bent in Cuba" (the play) thing that's being crowd-funded on Indiegogo since June.

https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/7773254/campaigns

 

[Dr. Evil]

Ya not the way to go about that. But I do agree he is a great actor. And I think has much more to offer. But I would try a more civilized tone.

He's still very new to Hollywood, but if he's anything like the other Black British actors who have already made an impact in Hollywood then he has a long career in Hollywood ahead of him.

 

[Jekecy]

Sci fi films usually average one black person per film since 2004. This is a rarity. Hell, Disney's other big live action property, the Avengers is not as diverse as Star Wars 7 is going to be.

While Abrams should get props for not white-washing the cast, I'm a little disheartened diversity has come to mean "black and/or female" now. If the trend continues it's going to become its own stereotype.

 

[Dr. Evil]

While Abrams should get props for not white-washing the cast, I'm a little disheartened diversity has come to mean "black and/or female" now. If the trend continues it's going to become its own stereotype.

As an Asian American, the issue I see with the lack of Asian Americans in this film is for a few reasons:

1. Television. A lot of Asian American actors are doing TV these days. Shooting this film will overlap the shooting of TV Shows, especially if the Asian American is playing a significant role on TV. Example, Daniel Dae Kim would not be a bad option for a part in this movie, but his role would be relegated to a minor part and not because of race, but because of his role on TV. His role on Hawaii Five-O is significant. Same for Lucy Liu, Ming Na and others.
2. Comedy. Those Asian Americans who do tend to do mostly movies tend to do comedic films. Even those I mention doing TV are doing comedies on TV.

Oscar Isaac is Hispanic.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I definitely think diversity means more than casting black actors, it of course means including many other types of non white actors. When I say I want diversity I don't just mean black actors.

 

[Solidus]

Ya lots forget Oscar is Hispanic. I don't think any film will have one of each kind of ordeal. But regardless this is a very diverse cast.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I do notice that it's an "Inside Llywen Davis" reunion with Isaac and Driver.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I haven't seen that film yet but I did like Isaac in Drive.

 

[Solidus]

I forgot he was in Drive. It's been a while since I've seen that.

 

[terry78]

A lot of latinos can, for lack of a better term, "pass."

 

[Donut]

Three Black people (four if you count Maise Richardson-Sellers, who hasn't been officially announced yet and five if Billy Dee gets a cameo) in a major sci fi movie?

As much flack as JJ Abrams gets from some people, he gets praise for this.

How many survive until the end credits is the question

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

They made Oscar look different for his role in Drive, which is probably why despite having seen that movie twice I keep forgetting he was in it.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I forgot he was in Drive. It's been a while since I've seen that.

I adore Drive.