Good luck, Keri Russell. You are officially part of one of the most debated and dissected franchises on the planet.
Variety is reporting that the actress, who has been killing it over at FX’s “The Americans,” has signed on to star in the upcoming mega-blockbuster “Star Wars: Episode IX.” There are no real details about the role, but the report claims that it will call for “action-heavy fight scenes,” which could mean a variety of things. And no, we don’t know if she’ll be part of the Resistance or the First Order.
The report also says that Russell was part of a group of several actresses vying for the role, but ultimately, director J.J. Abrams settled on a familiar face for his next film. Previous to ‘Episode IX,’ Abrams have worked together on two other projects, including Russell’s star-making turn as the titular character in the TV series “Felicity.” They also teamed up for Abrams big-screen directorial debut, “Mission: Impossible III.”
As mentioned above, Russell is coming off her incredible performance in the critically-acclaimed FX drama, “The Americans.” That series recently finished its run, and clearly, Russell now has enough free time to visit the galaxy far, far away. Variety also claims that Abrams is looking to cast a couple other actors for prominent roles soon, as they begin production on the film at the end of this month.
There’s a lot of speculation surrounding ‘Episode IX.’ Behind-the-scenes drama came to the surface when Lucasfilm fired original filmmaker Colin Trevorrow, and replaced him with Abrams as director, and hired Lawrence Kasdan to help work on the script. From there, things only got more interesting, as Rian Johnson’s ‘The Last Jedi’ has become one of the most polarizing films in franchise history, leading many to wonder if Abrams is aboard to “save” the franchise.
Either way, Russell now joins a production with a ton of baggage and anticipation. Let’s just hope she has a smoother ride in the “Star Wars” universe than previous new female additions like Daisey Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran.
Since when has Lawrence Kasdan joined the writing team? I saw his name mentioned in the initial Variety article about Russell’s casting, but as far as I knew he said he was done with Star Wars after Solo. I mean, if he’s involved, awesome, but I thought it was just JJ and Chris Terrio working on the current script.
Variety says she’s in early talks. Saying she’s “officially” joined is not precise reporting.
https://variety.com/2014/film/news/joaquin-phoenix-marvels-doctor-strange-1201264060/
By (re)hiring Abrams and Kasdan, Disney is just treading water, hoping to get through one more film without doing more damage. But Abrams and Kasdan definitely aren’t going to “save” anything.
“The Force Awakens” was…fine. It was better than the prequels. It was a good faith effort. But it really wasn’t any better than any of Abrams other franchise “renovations”, which were all fine for their moment, but which largely failed to resonate after the initial buzz faded. Abrams’ signature move is building a crack marketing high that, while extremely potent upon initial release, never, ever extends to a lasting cultural passion for the underlying film.
The series is in desperate need of an invested, visionary architect, not the competent property flipper they have in Abrams. “Star Wars” needs a filmmaker whose perspective controls all elements of the entire series going forward. It needs a new George Lucas. It needs a single, authorial voice.
Aside from the monumental challenge of finding that grand author, the kink in that plan is that Disney doesn’t want to share any of the loot with that author once they’ve found him/her. They don’t want to be beholden to that visionary, financially or creatively. So the corporate plan is to turn “Star Wars” into an authorless brand vessel with no overarching vision, just familiar creatures, spaceships, and lightsabers guided by a random directorial guest-star-of-the-moment.
And while that may excite shareholders and Disney accountants, it’s going to be a bummer for the fans no matter who is directing any given episode.
Have not a clue as to what the problem is with Johnson’s Star Wars flick. It was a good movie and accomplished a lot. There is no “Problem” … except maybe with the same neurotic Online whiners there always are. It’s a movie. It’s the Internet – get some some perspective. It’s NOT real life.