Has Benedict Cumberbatch Been Cast In 'STAR WARS: EPISODE VII?'

It's Monday and Labor Day, so it's only natural a hot Star Wars story is cast out for us to obsess over. So how does this latest rumor sit with you folks? Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast in Star Wars: Episode VII.

That's the latest word around town, according to a report from Film Chronicles. The popular Sherlock star is set to re-team with his Star Trek Into Darkness director J.J. Abrams in a role yet to be revealed. His casting announcement is reportedly imminent. It should be noted that Cumberbatch recently and unexpectedly dropped out of Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak with no official reason given. Peak and Episode VII are slated to film at the same time, which would mean picking one or the other.

NOTHING has been confirmed for any of the cast yet. We are all still assuming that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are on board (though there has been more than enough smoke for that fire to say it's a foregone conclusion they will return to their iconic roles). Scant info has been leaked about Abrams' Star Wars, except for the unconfirmed search for seven leads, some of whom are presumably the offspring of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa. Rachel Hurd-Wood (Solomon Kane) and Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) have been thrown into that rumor mill.

Cumberbatch may be out of that age range to play the next generation of Solos or Skywalkers with the film set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, but he could easily knock it out of the ball park as the latest red lightsaber wielding Sith Lord. Whether he's up for another villain role after Into Darkness remains to be seen, but I have little doubt he could bring the same perfect chilling face and voice of evil to Star Wars. Cumberbatch is also a fan favorite across the board, so I wouldn't anticipate any backlash of Affleck proportions if this were to prove true.

In May while chatting up Star Trek Into Darkness, he had this to say regarding conversations with Abrams about a potential Star Wars role with Total Film:

“I’ve already asked him if I can be a lightsaber and we’re in talks - about whirring sounds and the rates for the lights and everything [laughs]." 

“I thought, ‘Yeah, I grew up with them,’ and I just looked recently at when they were released and now I’m like, ‘No, I didn’t grow up with them, I was born with them.’ They were a huge part of my background, and my upbringing." 

“I was much more connected to [Star Wars] as a kid, in the way that a lot of kids are because it’s immediate storytelling, very simple - a beautifully, outrageously simple narrative in a way - and a wonderful three-act melodrama, opera. And I loved them. I really, really loved those films and I always wanted to be Han Solo. Everything Harrison Ford did I just thought was the coolest thing ever - Raiders Of The Lost Ark was very much my upbringing as well."

“What I realized with the reboot of Star Trek in 2009 is that I had a residual love and empathy for these characters because I felt really, giddily sentimental about them getting back together, and this origin story. So Star Trek seeds a little deeper for most people, it’s a little bit more mature - it doesn’t take itself too seriously though, it’s very humorous and fast-paced and imaginative and fun." 

“But I think the serious things that really kind of get you… that comes from good characters, really well drawn characters that have fantastically rich relationships and really interesting meat in the stories.

“They may be set in space but they dealt with every kind of discussion or morality play, or debate about race or purpose and place and identity, and what it is to belong, and the human condition, and that’s its enduring appeal. I’m backtracking a bit but what I’m saying is my fervour for Trek was there, I just didn’t realize it. I was an out-and-out kid running around with a lightsaber wanting to fly the Millennium Falcon but I think I’m growing into being a Trekkie, if that makes sense.”

As with just about everything to do with this film, only official news is official news. Does this story have enough merit to pan out? Or do we throw in on the pile to keep company with that silly Ryan Gosling rumor? We can speculate till the twin suns set. But so far the people involved on the record are the director, producers, screenwriter, and composer.

More to come soon...

SOURCES: Film Chronicles, Total Film, Bleeding Cool

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