Since the Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast was officially announced last April the internet has been flooded with potential rumours and ramblings concerning who is playing who (or what). While most of these rumours haven’t been confirmed some concept art that was leaked in recent months can help add some depth to the early character descriptions.
Before you read on I must stress that this is very much spoiler territory but also that it is currently only a rumour and hasn’t been confirmed by anyone involved with The Force Awakens.
Fan site StarWars7news are reporting that their Episode VII source has seen concept art regarding Max Von Sydow’s character and it differs from previous rumoured descriptions.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW…
Contrary to previous descriptions Von Sydow’s character has “no cybernetic implants upon his face” or make-up of any kind. He’s wearing a dark robe with a grey tunic and appears somewhat of a “grandfather” type character “ready to listen to a story his grandchildren have to tell him.” In the concept art he is leaning forward and pleasantly smiling and is being compared to Obi-Wan.
The description continues, “The most important aspect of this artwork is that it is most definitely Von Sydow’s likeness — unmistakable — which suggests that either the artists always knew who was going to play this character OR it was produced after Max von Sydow was confirmed for the role…He appears to be seated in a dark room with several dark-orange and bright-yellow lights illuminating the place. While I’d say it looks kind of like the Carbonite Chamber from Bespin, I think it would be more accurate to say that it would probably look more like an “employees only” area of a Cantina – in most ways, the one on Tatooine from A New Hope, and in a few others, the ones on Coruscant in Attack Of The Clones.”
It’s worth noting their source claims that the concept art is from a batch of older art that may or may not have been conceptualised very early on in production. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we finally get some official confirmation from StarWars.com.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set for release on December 18th 2015 and sees returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) joined by Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Domhnall Gleeson (Dredd), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Jessica Henwick (Spirit Warriors), Christina Chong (24: Live Another Day) and newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F&v=usnScWU5JkY&feature=player_embedded
Originally published January 14, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
