EXTRA! EXTRA! Star Wars Episode VIII Are Looking For A New Female Lead

After the global success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens it’s crazy to think Episode VIII is only a year and a half away with Rian Johnson (Looper) writing and directing.

Joining Johnson will be Benicio Del Toro in an untitled villain role and Gugu Mbatha – Raw also in an untitled role and moviecastingcall.org have posted up auditions calls with Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm looking for another lead female role.

“The studio is now officially conducting a talent search for a lead role, female of any ethnicity who can play between 20 and 35 years of age. Additional roles are also being cast, both male and female.”

At this early stage, it’s hard to say what the role would be, but the top two contenders could be another Solo child or it could be Luke Skywalker’s daughter.

Whoever they cast they’ll be joining returning cast members Daisy Ridley as Rey; John Boyega as Finn; Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron; Carrie Fisher as Leia; Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker; Gwendoline Christie as Captain Plasma and Harrison Ford as Han Solo.

The obvious surprised name on that list is Ford returning as Han Solo and as we all saw in The Force Awakens Solo was killed by his son Kylo Ren, which the only reason to bring him back is for a flashback or dream/nightmare sequence.

It’s also great to see Christie coming back as Captain Plasma as she was one character which slightly disappointed in The Force Awakens and let's hope Johnson has a way to make her the badass villain we all know she can be.

There’s also three names missing from the returning cast and that’s Adam Driver as Kylo Ren/Ben Solo; Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux and Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke. They're obviously in the film as Snoke needs to rebuild the First Order after the Starkiller Base got destroyed and train Kylo Ren to becoming a Sith.

Finally, principal photography beings in Spring 2016 and will be shooting in cities and countries including London and Iceland.

Let me know which actress you’d like to see take this role and what character she should play. Tweet me @Shaun_Wren.