Two of the craziest Star Wars: Episode VII rumors yet – and that’s saying a lot, given the unbelievable rollercoaster ride we’ve been on thus far – have hit the net over the past few days, and to say they’re doozies is an understatement.
The probability that they are correct is, in all actuality, extremely low, but they’re still incredibly entertaining reads – and in the off-chance that they are, indeed, legit, we’ll need all this extra time to start digesting them.
Tom Cruise will make a cameo appearance in Episode VII
According to the Mirror, none other than Tom Cruise himself has spent the past week in London, reportedly meeting with old pal J.J. Abrams and his Episode VII production staff during this time to go over the possibility of him making a cameo in the still-shooting film.
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It’s actually not quite as ridiculous as it may seem upon first blush. Cruise was the one who gave Abrams his first big directorial break eight years ago with Mission: Impossible III, after the first several directors had bailed and he had binge-watched the first two seasons of Alias. And the Star Wars films already brandish a long history of cramming as many cameos in as possible, such as – perhaps most (in)famously – George Lucas and his family in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (and, subsequently, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well).
The first Episode VII action sequences
Star Wars: Episode VII News, meanwhile, has the description of the first action set-piece that has managed to (possibly) leak from the production.
“An older male Jedi, most likely Luke Skywalker, duels against a Dark Lord of the Sith…”
The sequence in question is said to take place on a planet that is a “cross between Hoth and Endor,” meaning a forest of tall trees set amidst a snowy landscape, with the Millennium Falcon parked on a cliff above it all. An older male Jedi, most likely Luke Skywalker, duels against a Dark Lord of the Sith, who features a mask not unlike the titular Winter Soldier’s in the latest Captain America installment. A female Jedi arrives, exiting a crashed starfighter that looks suspiciously like an X-Wing, with her lightsaber ignited.
The problem with this rumor is that it is several orders of magnitude removed from the original source; Star Wars 7 News got it from a reader who had originally spotted it on a different movie site before it was deleted, and then, to top it all off, the “spy report” itself didn’t originate with the poster, but with contacts of his who had access to Episode VII’s pre-vis materials instead.
The still-untitled Star Wars: Episode VII hits theaters on December 18, 2015. It stars returning cast members Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker and newcomers John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Max von Sydow, Adam Driver, and Andy Serkis.