Check out all the talented members of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast
For the first time in a decade, there’s about to be a new Star Wars movie in theaters. Director J.J. Abrams was lured away from the Star Trek movie franchise for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first “official” sequel to the original Star Wars films. Now, in a new visual guide, we’re taking a look at the Force Awakens cast. Check out some brand-new faces and some very familiar ones!
Abrams and Lucasfilm lined up the key players from the first Star Wars trilogy to appear in The Force Awakens alongside veteran performers, an Oscar winner, rising stars, and two leading stars who have never headlined a film of this magnitude before. Abrams reportedly wanted to have unknown actors in the cast, just as George Lucas did in the original trilogy.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens stands poised to shatter every current box office opening weekend record thanks to intense presales. And even more amazingly, Lucasfilm/Disney has shown some restraint regarding the trailers for the film, and several of its secrets remain intact just under two months away from its official rollout.
Ahead of the film’s release on Friday, December 18, ComingSoon.net is throwing the spotlight on the large ensemble Force Awakens cast. Some of them may not be stars yet, but we expect that to change very quickly after The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Daisy Ridley
Meet the new face of Star Wars… and it’s highly unlikely that you’ve seen her before! Daisy Ridley was a relative newcomer when she was cast as Rey. Her career began in 2013 as she made guest appearances on British television series including “Casualty,” “Youngers,” “Silent Witness,” and “Mr. Selfridge.”
Presumably Ridley is locked up for the next two Star Wars movies after The Force Awakens. Once audiences see her debut as Rey, we’ll have better idea of what she can do and how far she can go.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – John Boyega
John Boyega is not an unknown, nor is The Force Awakens his first sci-fi film. He made his feature film debut in 2011 as Moses, the lead character of the cult British alien invasion movie, Attack the Block. U.S. audiences may also recognize him for the small role he played in “24: Live Another Day” as a U.S. drone pilot who was falsely accused of attacking his fellow soldiers.
As Finn, Boyega is essentially the new male lead of Star Wars. And given the fact that he’s wielding a lightsaber on the poster, that tends to imply that Finn may become a Jedi as well.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Oscar Isaac
The Sith may have the rule of two, but in the first two Star Wars trilogies, “always three, there are” when it comes to the heroes. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme in the prequels, Han, Luke, and Leia in the original films. For the new trilogy, it looks like Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron will form a similar trinity with Finn and Rey.
Isaac’s next role after The Force Awakens is the title villain in X-Men: Apocalypse. And one of his previous breakout roles was the title character in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. Compared to his two primary co-stars, Isaac is a veteran, and arguably a much bigger star.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Adam Driver
If you’ve ever seen HBO‘s “Girls,” you know why Adam Driver is such an unlikely choice to be one of the new villains in The Force Awakens. The guy who plays Adam Sackler is gonna play the new baddest dude in the galaxy?! No wonder people think that Luke Skywalker is Kylo Ren!
Driver’s career only dates back to 2009, but he’s racked up some impressive credits including J. Edgar, Lincoln, This is Where I Leave You, and he even had a small role opposite Oliver Isaac in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Andy Serkis
Mr. Motion-capture performance is getting a pretty significant role in The Force Awakens. Andy Serkis is playing Supreme Leader Snoke, the evil master of Kylo Ren and a very powerful wielder of the Dark Side of the Force.
While Serkis appeared briefly in Avengers: Age of Ultron as Black Panther’s classic villain Ulysses Klaw, he’s more famous for his performance-captured roles as Gollum in The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit series, as well as Caesar in the new Planet of the Apes series. He even provided the movements and performance capture for King Kong in Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Gwendoline Christie
Almost every “Game of Thrones” fan loves Gwendoline Christie’s take on Brienne of Tarth, the fearsome warrior woman who physically towers above most of her male co-stars. Christie also has a memorable role coming up in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 as Commander Lyme, a rebel fighter and a former Victor of the Hunger Games.
In The Force Awakens, Christie gets to embrace villainy as Captain Phasma of the First Order, a role which is rumored to make her one of the primary antagonists of the film.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Domhnall Gleeson
Domhnall Gleeson has a very long list of film credits to his name, but American audiences may best remember him as Bill Weasley, Ron Weasley’s oldest brother in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 and 2. He’s also appeared in Dredd, True Grit, Frank, About Time, and Ex Machina.
For Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Gleeson will have one of the main villain roles as General Hux, the leader of the First Order’s Starkiller Base.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in 12 Years a Slave. Nyong’o had a small role in Non-Stop, and she’ll be providing the voice of Raksha in The Jungle Book live-action movie directed by Jon Favreau.
Unlike most of her Star Wars co-stars, Nyong’o won’t physically appear in The Force Awakens. Her character, Maz Kanata, will be a motion-captured creation that won’t be unveiled until the film is released. She is known to be a pirate, and her voice is reportedly heard in the latest trailer for the movie.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Max von Sydow
Max von Sydow is a true screen legend, whose memorable film roles include Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, Father Merrin in The Exorcist, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Never Say Never Again, Joubert in Three Days of the Condor, and Liet-Kynes in Dune.
Von Sydow’s character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently unrevealed. But it would be very surprising if von Sydow didn’t have a role worthy of his stature in the industry.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Anthony Daniels
It just wouldn’t be a Star Wars film without Anthony Daniels as C-3P0. He’s the only actor to appear in all 7 films to date (according to Daniels, Kenny Baker was never actually on set for The Force Awakens), in addition to reprising his role in three “Star Wars” animated series and other various Star Wars tie-ins. He’s rarely had a role that wasn’t C-3PO!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Peter Mayhew
Like Daniels, Peter Mayhew is very closely tied to his Star Wars role. Mayhew first portrayed Chewie in the original film, and he’s reprised the role in four of the six subsequent sequels, including The Force Awakens. Even outside of Star Wars, most of Mayhew’s gigs have simply been stepping back into character as Chewie.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Carrie Fisher
After 32 years, Carrie Fisher is reprising her role as Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. She is still best known for starring in the original trilogy, but she also went on to star in Hannah and Her Sisters, The Blues Brothers, The ‘Burbs, Shampoo, and When Harry Met Sally. Additionally, Fisher had a second career as one of the best script doctors in Hollywood, on top of her semi-autobiographical novels Postcards from the Edge, Surrender the Pink, and Delusions of Grandma.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Harrison Ford
Perhaps the biggest surprise surrounding The Force Awakens was Harrison Ford’s return to the franchise that made him a star. For decades, Ford kept his distance from the Star Wars movies, but he reprised his role as Han Solo for The Force Awakens and he appears to have a large part in the movie.
Ford is also famous for starring in the Indiana Jones films, Blade Runner, The Fugitive, Air Force One, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Presumed Innocent, and Regarding Henry.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cast – Mark Hamill
The biggest question regarding The Force Awakens cast is “Where’s Luke Skywalker?!” He’s in there! Abrams just hasn’t shown him to us yet. Like Fisher and Ford, Mark Hamill shot to fame for his role in the original trilogy. But in the three decades since Return of the Jedi, Hamill’s biggest role outside of Star Wars was his unforgettable take on The Joker which he originated in “Batman: The Animated Series” and he reprised the part in several different projects up to and including the Batman: Arkham video game series.
Hamill is also said to be voicing The Joker in the animated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke.
