THR is reporting that Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy, will reprise his role in Star Wars: Episode VII. This is great news to fans who have supported Mayhew (age 69) though his many recent health struggles. They can easily use a stunt man for the more physically demanding action that Mayhew would not be able to perform, because I imagine that Chewbacca suit is pretty heavy. Let’s hope we don’t get a CGI Chewbacca, which is a worry for several readers on Facebook.

With no official cast other than R2-D2, Star Wars: Episode VII face punches theaters December 15, 2015.

A month ago it was reported that Girls actor Adam Driver was up for a role in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Wars: Episode VII. There weren’t any specific details given at the time, but today we’ve learned that he’s close to signing a deal in which he would play the main villain in the story. Variety reports that  the character “is said to be in the vein of iconic Star Wars villain Darth Vader.” Driver definitely has the look of a villain, and he might be the first official character in the new trilogy to be announced. Apparently he was up against Michael Fassbender and Hugo Weaving for the role. Those are both amazing actors, so Driver must have brought something pretty awesome and dark to the character that the others didn’t.

The film is scheduled to start shooting at London’s Pinewood Studios in April, and it will be released in theaters on December 18th, 2015.

Production on Star Wars: Episode VII is on a roll, and today we have an update on casting for the film and the story it will tell. The following news comes from MarketSaw, which has been a reliable source when it comes to Star Wars: Episode VII news. They broke the news that Lucasfilm was going to get started on the new Star Wars trilogy in the first place. The same source that fed them that information as well as several other Star Wars news items is back with some more good news. When it comes to the casting of the film, this is what they revealed,

“Ian McDiarmid, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Warwick Davies, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gary Oldman. I believe Cumberbatch and Oldman were pursued for the same role, but I don’t know how that will work out with the script changes, but I’m told they are both involved.”

The site previously broke the news about Ford, Fisher, and Hamill. They are now confirming the rumors about Cumberbatch and Oldman, which is great! They go on to talk about pre-production issues that have occurred,

“Many Star Wars pre-production issues, an ‘inadequate’ central story which nobody would stamp off on, a problematic initial release date and an ‘indecisive’ director (J.J. Abrams) with the hardest gig in the industry. It’s not going to be a cakewalk, but it will be a product shipping with the majority of its original parts.”

As for the story that the filmmakers plan on telling, they say,

“Ultimately it’s about twins, and which will take a path towards darkness and which will follow in their father’s footsteps, or at least that is what it used to be, that may come later as I think changes are being undertaken to bring the original cast into the forefront of the story leading to ramifications that lead up to the next generation of Skywalkers.”

So that’s the latest news on the movie, and things are sounding great! It’s set to be released on December 18th, 2015!

It looks like Star Wars fans won’t have to wait long to see the new animated series Star Wars Rebels. Jedi News got their hands on a company shareholder letter that reveals that the series is scheduled to launch this summer as a Disney Channel movie.

“[W]e’re introducing Star Wars Rebels to television audiences this summer with a movie and a series of shorts on Disney Channel. Followed by a continuing series on Disney XD.”

The series looks and sounds like it’s going to be incredible, and it’s awesome that we won’t have to wait that much longer to see it.

Star Wars Rebels is set between the events of Episode III and IV — an era spanning almost two decades never-before explored on-screen. It takes place in a time when the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape.

The full series is expected to debut this fall.

As you might imagine, there is a ton of secrecy surrounding Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars films. They are so intense with the security that director J.J. Abrams doesn’t even get to see sunlight when working on the script for the film.

During an interview with the Daily Telegraph Abrams explained that,

“My office… I’m working on the Star Wars script today and the people in my office have covered up all my windows with black paper. I guess they wanted to make sure no one could see what I was doing. it seems rather extreme.”

But it’s an extreme to which they are willing to go to protect what they are working on. What they don’t seem to get is that no matter how many windows they black out, leaks can come from within the orginization itself. He went on to talk about the digital age, saying,

“I do think there’s something about the digital age that is increasingly dehumanising us. We’re in this very weird place where we’re being pulled into experiences that aren’t really experiences at all. When you’re printing something on a Chandler & Price letterpress, even though it might take a long time and it’s imperfect, isn’t that the point?”

He then went on to say,

“We’re living in a moment of instant information and a sense of entitlement to that information. But I think it’s nice to remember that there’s nothing wrong with a sense of anticipation.”

One day everything we will want to know about the new Star Wars films will be revealed. In the mean time, it’s incredibly fun to talk about the rumors and what we want to see from the return of the classic sci-fi franchise. I have to say that blacking out the windows seems pretty ridiculous though.