The Rise of Skywalker Keri Russell is Zorii Bliss

[Lobo]

I love her, so this has me excited, plus it is said she will have a lot of action scenes.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Yeah, I love her too and have been a fan of hers since the 90's.

JJ & Matt love working with her. LOL. Why wouldn't they.


Supposedly, the role Keri is playing is [BLACKOUT]Mara[/BLACKOUT]




What do you guys think?

Was that just a code name for casting or could she be playing [BLACKOUT]Mara Jade[/BLACKOUT], which would be insanely cool.

Thoughts?

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Spoiler

I'm not gonna be surprised if it's Mara Jade simply due to the fact of the backlash TLJ has been getting. Want to win fans back over? Cast a character from the original canon that fans loved. But the surprise twist.....she's one of the Knights Of Ren

 

[wampa1]

If it was NAME REDACTED, I'd would expect them to cast a more age appropriate actor so I don't think it's her.

 

[Last Skywalker]

What do you guys think?

Was that just a code name for casting or could she be playing [BLACKOUT]Mara Jade[/BLACKOUT], which would be insanely cool.

Thoughts?

Well... my only experience with the character was the Zahn books, and I don't remember much about those having read them when they first came out. So I pulled up the Wikia page.

Hmm.. lets see... so if she is Mara Jade, is this incarnation supposed to have been a former apprentice of Snoke that is now going to go rogue, now that he's dead? It would be interesting if she were a prospective replacement apprentice for Palaptine for Vader and an apprentice of Snoke and could provide a throughline to that narrative to connect the dots. Russell is old enough to have served both, and it plays well with her The Americans character. Basically raised as a child to serve the Empire and is working to try to bring it back? And given her age is about right... can we start the... she's Rey's mother speculation!?

But at its base... you have a swap of Palpatine dying, for Snoke dying?

Either way.. can't argue with the casting and the character she'll be playing is pure speculation at this point. But then, I also loved that Laura Dern was cast for 8, and we saw them do her dirty with bad writing. So hard to get really excited, but as long as they don't have her trying to do a British accent *rolls eyes*, it should be ok.

 

[TheVileOne]

Keri Russell as Mara Jade just sounds like willful made up fan BS. Just like every rumor about Snoke and The Last Jedi and Rey's parents.

I haven't seen ONE reputable site or trade report. Not a single one.

 

[Last Skywalker]

Keri Russell as Mara Jade just sounds like willful made up fan BS. Just like every rumor about Snoke and The Last Jedi and Rey's parents.

Sure, but what else are forums for? :>. Figured i'd take it for a walk. Not much else that's actually interesting going on with SW at the moment.

And I can certainly see there being potential there if we assume that the death of Snoke is a 1:1 swap for the death of Palpatine.

 

[sueb1863]

Spoiler

Wasn't Mara marrying Luke a big part of her story? Luke is dead, so that won't be happening.

 

[Pennywise]

Wonder if she's a rebel or a member of the First Order? Either way, she should be a great addition as long as she isn't underutilized.

 

[TheVileOne]

Spoiler

Wasn't Mara marrying Luke a big part of her story? Luke is dead, so that won't be happening.

Their romance was one of the bigger things about the EU. And Mara Jade was a fan favorite from the EU.

Hardcore fans are just desperate to see certain characters like that come back and get a prominent return in the new stuff. Similar to Thrawn on Rebels, but on the big screen.

 

[Lobo]

I hope she is a Knight of Ren who Rey brings to the light.

As for Mara, I doubt that is who she is, but I could see Mara getting the Thrawn treatment, or something like Dragon Ball is currently doing with Broly.

 

[Karelia]

I've seen pictures of her where she resembles Mara so much it's uncanny. But I doubt it's her. If this was Episode 8, I'd say maybe. But who knows with SW at this point anymore. Almost feels too late for Mara to be in it. But if they can make it work... Perhaps a flashback?

I think I'd rather see a young Luke with a young Mara, be it animated or live action.

But she could end up just being someone who works with Lando.

 

[TheVileOne]

IMHO I don't want Mara Jade put in this time period anyway. it would too radically change the character.

Also it would be a cheap way to pander to the fans to try and earn back their trust ala the Fett crap in Attack of the Clones.

 

[Mask&Cape]

I hope she is villain.

We don't need another hero ...

:P

 

[Aximili86]

Hope Abrams doesn't pull the Mara Jade fanservice crap.

She's probably just some bigwig FO officer or something, or Republic (rather than Resistance) leader.

 

[Karelia]

Yeah, it's probably something boring and predictable like you said.

 

[Jenocide]

IMHO I don't want Mara Jade put in this time period anyway. it would too radically change the character.

Also it would be a cheap way to pander to the fans to try and earn back their trust ala the Fett crap in Attack of the Clones.

This.


Just like the random pairing of Yoda and Chewbacca in Revenge of the Sith. Like we couldn't see what you were doing, George.

 

[Frodo]

I don't care if she's Mara Jade or someone else. I don't have any connection to this character so I'm not invested in her in being in the film or not being in the film.

If JJ uses Mara Jade, it won't be for fan service but , because he thinks she's needed for the story. It may not work, and some fans may not like it, but its not gonna our call either way.

She's a good actress, so whoever she ends up being she'll knock out of the park.

I'm open to whoever she ends up playing. I'm really not dogmatic about it as fanboys are.

 

[Bim]

Hope it's a nice, meaty role. Love Keri.

 

[Jenocide]

I honestly didn't even know she still had a career.

 

[Last Skywalker]

I honestly didn't even know she still had a career.

Ya... she did incredible work in The Americans. An FX series few watched.

 

[TheVileOne]

Hope Abrams doesn't pull the Mara Jade fanservice crap.

She's probably just some bigwig FO officer or something, or Republic (rather than Resistance) leader.

I don't want Mara Jade fanservice either. It would just be blatant pandering.

 

[Last Skywalker]

I don't want Mara Jade fanservice either. It would just be blatant pandering.

You gotta have some sort of selling point lol.

What happens when you don't have a selling point to get people into the theaters?

Solo. Its a double whammy if it has to directly follow a poorly-received Saga film.

Just out of curiousity, what do you guys think they do here? They're making STAR WARS Movies. If you can't introduce settings and characters that the public can relate to, you have no audience willing to watch it, and no money that covers the cost of making it. This is the reason the OT3 even featured in this trilogy. They were supposed to pass the torch to a new generation of characters. So far the only thing that's been torched is the Jedi Tree.

You can derisively sneer about 'fan service' while you twirl your moustache, but at the end of the day people go to see things that interest them and have a following.

Using and reformatting the character of Mara Jade for the cinema and the Saga? I'll buy that for a dollar.

Bring it on.

 

[Aximili86]

*Laughs* How in the hell is Mara Jade a "selling point" for anyone other than the hardcore? Nobody general-audience-wise knows who she is.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I think at this point it's long past when they could or should have introduced Mara Jade into the sequel trilogy narrative. If she were to appear in canon, I'd imagine it would be in a Dave Filoni animated series/Timothy Zahn novel ala Thrawn.