Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro join Star Wars VIII

[JCoatsworth]

Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro have joined the cast of “Star Wars: Episode VIII,” Disney confirmed on Monday.
[...]
Dern scored Oscar nominations for her work in “Rambling Rose” and “Wild,” and effectively ducked velociraptors and T-rexes in “Jurassic Park.” Upcoming projects include Jennifer Fox’s “The Tale” and Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women.”

Del Toro scored an Oscar playing a morally conflicted cop in “Traffic,” earned another nomination for “21 Grams,” and headlined the likes of “Sicario” and “Savages.” He next reprises his role as the Collector in “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.” An earlier Variety report said that Del Toro will play the villain role in the new “Star Wars.” [...]

Full article

I'm a huge fan of both of these actors and since I really liked Episode 7 this actually really excites me. What do you think?

 

[Mr Trick]

Full article

I'm a huge fan of both of these actors and since I really liked Episode 7 this actually really excites me. What do you think?

Me too and Dern keeps showing her ambition and range. Maybe soon she will get the respect she deserves. After the recent film I too will be going to see this.

 

[Buffy Summers]

They need to keep names out of this lol

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I knew Del Toro, but Dern is a new one. I just think they will be much smaller parts than people realize. Honestly. It's just like people got so excited about the casting of Christie in The Force Awakens. I would much rather Del Toro be in Rogue One anyway.

 

[JCoatsworth]

Also, here's the official production announcement of Episode VIII. Didn't wanna make a new thread just because of this little video.

I knew Del Toro, but Dern is a new one.

Could be, but today they officially confirmed it.

I just think they will be much smaller parts than people realize. Honestly. It's just like people got so excited about the casting of Christie in The Force Awakens. I would much rather Del Toro be in Rogue One anyway.

I don't really care about the size of the role. It's just that you can always expect high quality work from these two. Just hope it's not some motion-capture thing. They kind of wasted Lupita Nyong'o's talent in TFA.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

At least they edited that in a manner so as you weren't sitting there thinking "did mark hamill forget his line?"

 

[Blaze]

I'm stoked, two great additions, especially excited for Dern!

(And I was one of those people that was also super stoked for Christie to be in it, she's really growing on me as an actress).

 

[Mr Trick]

Yeah and good actors help the film shock horror!

 

[Athena]

I love Benicio Del Toro. I wonder if this will affect him being in GoTG2? Laura Dern is a splendid choice for any film IMO, but I too think their roles will be small; they'll want to concentrate on Rey, Finn & Poe moving forwards I think....

To be honest I was mightily impressed at their casting choices for The Force Awakens. Everyone was pretty spot on, although they did criminally underuse Gwendolyn Christie & Lupita Nyong'o

 

[Skanky Vamp]

they did criminally underuse Gwendolyn Christie

I disagree with that. For this fact.. the role was supposed to be a minor character going to 'random male' it was only after they tested Christie they cast her for the role instead, then planned to (keep her alive and) expand the role in the second. Otherwise to give her a bigger role they would have had to rewrite a bigger part for her at the last minute.

 

[JCoatsworth]

I disagree with that. For this fact.. the role was supposed to be a minor character going to 'random male' it was only after they tested Christie they cast her for the role instead, then planned to (keep her alive and) expand the role in the second. Otherwise to give her a bigger role they would have had to rewrite a bigger part for her at the last minute.

Yeah, it was probably the marketing department's fault that people were disappointed by her lack of screen time. The posters and everything made it look like she was a rather important character.

 

[Athena]

I just personally expected to see more of her in the movie than we did. Whether she was purposely not in it much or her scenes were cut I'm not sure, but as a fan of her work in Game of Thrones, I was stoked to see her appear in Star Wars and quite frankly disappointed that she wasn't around much.

Hopefully that will be remedied in Ep8.

 

[Bluebird]

I disagree with that. For this fact.. the role was supposed to be a minor character going to 'random male' it was only after they tested Christie they cast her for the role instead, then planned to (keep her alive and) expand the role in the second. Otherwise to give her a bigger role they would have had to rewrite a bigger part for her at the last minute.

You can tell they gave her a bigger role, or implied it going forwards, without developing a character much. Got a bit Mace Windu.