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[The Romulan Republic]

There are what, tens of thousands of actors around? Heaps of them look vaguely Han Solo-ish? Lots that have previously sold the idea of 'roguish and playful but ruthless criminal'? Many of whom would have an interesting and fresh portrayal?

So its pretty strange when the names you hear around roles in a nerd-favourite franchise always seem to be the same very small set of names, who (by coincidence) have a history in the nerd consciousness through other roles in nerd favourites. Its like people just want to constantly shuffle the actors they already like, rather than actually find or choose or speculate about actors who would be good/better/interesting in the role.

Those are actors a lot of people here are familiar with, and of course people will pick the actors they are familiar with.

[Stark]

There's a tendency to pick 'familiar' actors, and there's near exclusively choosing 'familiar' actors. Its particularly galling when someone will mention a 'familiar' nerd actor like Nathan Fillon, and then IMMEDIATELY SAY NO NOT REALLY SUITABLE.

Why was he mentioned at all? I speculate he was mentioned (in this imaginary case) because saying the name is a) safe and b) possibly going to get positive comments. Its not a serious suggestion for an actor to take the role - its a suggestion made so the nodding donkeys can nod along.

[Connor MacLeod]

I think in the sense with Star Wars you're also going to see pressure (for economic reasons) for them to stick to stuff that is familiar and predictable (EG bringing in actors from the prequels or OT movies and stuff to play up the nostalgia factor and shit.) Star Wars is guaranteed to bring in a certain amount of predictable money because of its entrenched (even indoctrinated) fanbase, so I imagine Disney would want to work on trying to reach out to grab other market segments, and that might entail cashing in on shit like 'nerd favourites.'

Its definitely a downside of the purchase by Disney if they do in fact go the 'safe' route like the signing of Ford suggests, but its also possible they may feel the Franchise name is a 'safe' enough bet they could also try some risks to broaden the appeal in other ways (sort of the way James Cameron is a 'safe' bet because his name is guaranteed to bring in a cetain segment of fandom, but they're willing to give him a certain amount of creative freedom in how he goes about dragging in that money.)

[Flagg]

Lets get crazy. Channing Tatum. HE'S so hot right now.

Isn't he busy doing reshoots to put him back into Iron Man Transformers GI Joe 2?

[Elfdart]

Micheal Fassbender?

He's so hot right now.

My SO thinks he's hot, too. Looks like you both have similar tastes in men!

[Stark]

If you looked like Channing Tatum, you'd be less of a joke.

So get to it. You owe it to yourself.

[Havok]

I am with Stark 100% percent on this. However just to play DA for a second... there really is no discussion to be had if someone says "lets get an unknown actor no one has ever heard of" and how could we then make fun of FattyNerdsTM for doing the obvious.

Also, I think Harrison Ford is the exact opposite of 'safe'. Personally I thought Ford was completely flat in ROTJ and you could tell he didn't agree that Solo should be alive.
The only thing that can happen with the Ford casting is disappointment. He isn't and can't match ANH let alone his performance in Empire. Aside from the fact that it is most certainly only going to be a cameo and won't even get the chance to try to, it is just fan service to bring him in. Effective, but still just fan service.

I'm also kinda surprised that people forget that Star Wars was full of unknowns or gloss over it so the can cast "OMG BEST ACTOR EVER!". I get that people don't really remember a time when Ford, Hamill and Fischer weren't household names, but that was something that I think made Star Wars what it was. None of the actors belonged to anything or anyone else.

[Stark]

Not only was it full of unknowns, its had bad acting the whole time. It wasn't always a plank of wood like ROTS, but 'quality' acting just isn't a major requirement for SW success. Look how terrible Samuel L Jackson was!

I wonder if they'll go back to the more naturalistic style of the OT or stay with the much more sterile feel of the newer stuff.

[Flagg]

Given that Abrams (who I assume has a fair amount of control) tried to finally "ground" trek in some semblance of livability, I have a feeling it will have more of the OT atmosphere.

[The Romulan Republic]

There's a tendency to pick 'familiar' actors, and there's near exclusively choosing 'familiar' actors. Its particularly galling when someone will mention a 'familiar' nerd actor like Nathan Fillon, and then IMMEDIATELY SAY NO NOT REALLY SUITABLE.

Why was he mentioned at all? I speculate he was mentioned (in this imaginary case) because saying the name is a) safe and b) possibly going to get positive comments. Its not a serious suggestion for an actor to take the role - its a suggestion made so the nodding donkeys can nod along.

I probably went with Fillion mainly because I thought of some similarities between Mal and Han and I lacked any better ideas.

As for my motives, I try to only post ideas that I think have merit.

Also, I find it offensive to call Fillion or others like him nerd actors as if that's all they've ever done in their career or being in things nerds like means you aren't a good actor.

Since you claim you want more original choices, why don't you come up with one of your own? Or are you only good for shooting other peoples' ideas down?

[Stark]

It's not his fault his career is driven by popularity in the nerd set. It takes a brave man to break type and there's no way to know if it would even work.

And stop whining, I suggested Channing Tatum. Oh sorry, is that not a 'real' 'serious' suggestion? Is it perhaps because he isn't traditionally associated with nerd roles? People need to broaden their horizons.

Hey Tucker, post a list of every youngish actor who has played a heroic scoundrel in the last decade plz.

[Havok]

He didn't say not good. Can't you read?

[The Romulan Republic]

I didn't realize it was you who suggested Tatum, Stark. I neither approve or disapprove of the suggestion because I don't know much about him.

I'd probably be more offended that you seem to think I'm against Tatum due to some nerd agenda if the idea wasn't so absurd that its kind of funny.

Edit: Havok, please clarify which of us your last post was addressed to.

[Stark]

I've only seen him in GI Joe and he has a jaw and smirks - the only requirements for Han Solo. :v

And I don't think it's bad to suggest any individual actor; it's just very strange to have the same names come up all the time when so many other actors exist.

[Havok]

Edit: Havok, please clarify which of us your last post was addressed to.

You.

[The Romulan Republic]

So thinking that dismissively labelling someone a nerd actor while spending several posts attacking others for suggesting them might mean you don't think they're good is a sign of illiteracy? Interesting theory.

Anyway, I wonder if its occurred to Stark that certain people get mentioned a lot partly because they're good actors.

Though it would be nice to have new actors as well, of course.

Edited.

[zman]

The Boba Fett spin-off will take place between Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Uh. Huh. Didn't ESB end with Boba Fett flying off to Jabba's palace, and RotJ start with Boba Fett still at Jabba's palace?

Wookiepedia gives about a year between the movies. Plenty of time for Boba Fett to leave Jabba's palace, do other things, then return.

hold up isn't that Shadows of the Empire time frame? Hmm this might be the first movie to mess with the Continuity

Lets see if they keep up with the EU or not.

[Covenant]

I hope they don't. I would happily see the EU go down in a flaming heap after a movie torpedoes it right to the face. I would also enjoy Ep 7 torpedoing the prequels too, but I'm just grumpy.

I think casting Ford is a mistake unless they give him some material to work with. I don't see why you couldn't actually make him a slightly bigger deal in the movie than a cameo, Ford is able to move around still even if he's substantially older than dirt. They could even try to portray Han as older than Ford's age and use him as a less contemplative Obi-Wan figure to motivate the characters out the door and off on their Hero's Journey. But he has to have dropped the smuggler routine long before settling down and there's no way he's still flying the Falcon around, it belongs in a museum.

Same as above goes for Hammil and Fisher. I think if Mark can get somewhat more in shape they can really use his terrible looks to their advantage. I know that if I were scriptwriting and I got the nod on Luke coming back I'd add in stuff about him looking more like his Father, feeling calmer and more sedate like Yoda and Kenobi did. I'd have him off meditating and not running around. Luke could be immensely powerful and I think his speeder biking days have past, but there's no reason he couldn't be a character to talk with awe about the way things were. If the Republic went down the tubes I think he'd take it the hardest and be the most willing to retreat off like his Mentors did and mourn the past, try to connect with his father, and if Leia and he never really were able to connect then maybe a big motivating principle could be reuniting the Skywalker branch of the family.

In any case, the focus needs to be on a new generation struggling with the challenges of the era, not the kids of the main characters. Maybe one of them can make it in as an important character, but there's no brilliance in casting the children of victorious heroes as new victorious heroes. If you add in someone's kids then that old hero is going to get Worfed and I don't want to see that.

Plus, needing to have the kids of other people just... I don't know. It feels fetishistic and wrong to focus on these characters so much. They're around, that's fine, that's context and continuity and that's fine. But I would like to see new characters changing the world and I want them to have a special relationship to the enemies they're facing. Han, Luke and Leia kinda seemed to tie up a lot of their loose ends, so you can't really find a great plot hook to make their kids invested in a struggle as long as you don't pull a "Vader's Apprentice" or "I'm ALSO a Sith! And now I'm sad!" or an "Empire still kicking!" thing, all of which would undermine the only good 3 movie sequence in the lot.

I would also strongly encourage them to look into new actors like the originals did. I don't want to be going "Hey, its that guy from that thing," the whole time if I can, and I think the idea of constantly recycling the same talent pool is as grotesque as recycling the same characters and relationships. I really hope none of the big name nerd actors make much of a footprint here. There were some big names in Star Wars to begin with, but they didn't consume the focus of the action. I wasn't going "Oh hey, its VanHelsing! Aww man, VanHelsing, what are you doing in space? You missed Dracula by a whole movie!"

So, ideally, it will be some different threat, with some different characters that are linked to it by fate, being portrayed by actors who may not be able to act well but will be able to be fully consumed by their role, and the original characters will play a Supporting Character role. They can be the Tarkins and Obi-Wans of Ep 7, a noted presence to get the training wheels off, but they shouldn't be the continuing cast.

The only one I wouldn't mind coming back as-is is Chewbacca. Make that furry fuck like 300 and still kicking and I'll be okay with it, and then you can have the Falcon without needing Old Han to push the buttons.