In a lengthy profile in The Hollywood Reporter, Benedict Cumberbatch, the man of the hour following his deliciously villainous turn in this summer’s blockbuster “Star Trek Into Darkness” and in anticipation of a streak of hotly anticipated fall movies in the form of “The Fifth Estate,” “12 Years a Slave,” “August: Osage County” and “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the British thespian clarified some points regarding his involvement in “Star Wars: Episode VII,” including his reasons for leaving Gothic horror movie “Crimson Peak.” He also expressed interest in being in the next film directed by Gary Oldman. Weird British character actors have to stick together!
After mentioning how he’d like to be in the next film directed by Gary Oldman (so far he has a lone directorial credit, 1997’s underrated drama “Nil by Mouth“), the attention, of course, turned to ‘Star Wars,’ which will be helmed by his ‘Into Darkness’ director J.J. Abrams. “I don’t know. Who knows, who knows? Nothing is known of that. I worked with J.J. Obviously, he knows. Everyone who wants to be part of that film, they know about.”
While it seems like a pretty clear denial of his involvement, there will undoubtedly be endless speculation of how he dodged the question and didn’t really give an answer. Because people really, really want Cumberbatch to be in ‘Star Wars,’ which is understandable. It’s just that he probably isn’t in ‘Star Wars.’
At least one cog in the wheel of ‘Star Wars’ theorizing has been completely shot down: many surmised that he had dropped out of Guillermo del Toro‘s Gothic horror movie “Crimson Peak” because he was offered a role in ‘Star Wars’ and the schedules would conflict (Tom Hiddleston would eventually replace him). Cumberbatch says that this simply isn’t true. “Absolutely not. No, no, no, no. That was nothing to do with it at all. [It was] between me and Guillermo, to be honest. It was amicable, and that’s all I’m going to say.” Of course it was.
Still, fanboys will still keep hoping and wishing and dreaming for Cumberbatch to join the galaxy far, far away, even if it is looking less and less likely.
Given that Cumberbatch was terrified of being in Star Wars in the first place in case it downgraded his career prospects as an actor, and given that the film was ghastly and his character no more than a ghostly looking cardboard cutout, I should think he'd run for the hills if any more Star Trek nonsense is mentioned. Needs to get his acting creds sorted out, do more quality stuff (maybe these latest films will demonstrate some of that although Fifth Estate looks dubious) and get back on stage.
I like how Cumberbatch starts himself the rumors on Star Wars before his publicist denies and bashes the rumors
"Weird British character actors have to stick together"
Huh??? You don't see a character actor having Cumberbatch's followings, and a weird character actor won't be on Hollywood Reporter's front cover with the headline "The New A-List", nor would he be photographed by the legendary photographer Annie Liebovitz for the September (2013) edition of US Vogue as one of the most prolific "Leading Man" in Hollywood. Also, before Gary Oldman decided to put his family as his priority and took supporting roles in big franchises Harry Potter and Batman, he's a leading man in the industry as well.
Dew, it's about time to crawling out of the cave and, oh, don't give me the crap by saying it's just humorous, I've read enough your articles related to Cumberbatch to know what you are doing.
There were people who have read Crimson Peak's script and they say that the TH/BC character performs *spoiler**spoiler*rape*spoiler* to another character. Maybe that's why he turned it down even after the re-writes. He already did that in another movie.
I hope James Gray talk about Lost City of Z in his masterclass at NYFF.