It’s certainly an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, what with Lucasfilm gearing up for a marketing blitz on Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead of its December release, as well as kicking off production on Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One.
Now it seems we may have our first piece of casting news on the next project on Lucasfilm’s slate, Star Wars: Episode VIII, with Hong Kong tabloid Apple Daily claiming that martial arts star Donnie Yen (Ip Man) has signed on for a role in the Rian Johnson-directed film, having won the part ahead of competition from Chinese actors such as Wang Lee Hom, Stephen Chow, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Daniel Wu, Jet Li and Chang Chen.
The tabloid claims that Yen will be filming scenes in London next month for the May 2017 release, which does cast doubts on the reliability of the report, seeing as we’ve heard nothing about Episode VIII going into production so soon. However, as Twitch notes, there have been rumours that Rogue One has been eyeing a number of Chinese actors, so perhaps Yen has secured a role in the upcoming spinoff…
https://youtu.be/IWWtOQOZSTI?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published July 6, 2015. Updated November 7, 2019.
