This has certainly been a great week for Star Wars news! Entertainment Weekly kicked things off with their extensive coverage of Star Wars: The Force Awakens for their annual Fall Movie Preview. We also have Disney’s very own convention – D23 – starting today, which our very own Kyle Warnke will be covering live from Anaheim. And now, ET Online has a brief interview with actor Benicio Del Toro, regarding his possible involvement in Star Wars: Episode VIII.
We’ve known for a while that the actor has been tagged to be a villain in Episode VIII, but his involvement, until now, had been all but rumored.
If you are a fan of the Marvel Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy films, then you will recognize Del Toro from his role as The Collector. And, the fact that Disney now owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm, it makes sense that we may start to see actors from both Marvel and Star Wars films, begin to get roles in both genres.
"“I can’t tell you much about it but I think that it might happen. It looks like it’s gonna happen so I’m very excited.”"
The actor then goes on to talk about the top secret script, which means that he has at least seen something regarding Episode VIII, in some fashion, or he wouldn’t be commenting on it. Del Toro’s connection to Star Wars begins with Episode IV: A New Hope, which he says it “Marked him.”
Episode VIII is currently in pre-production, with director Rian Johnson taking the reigns from J.J. Abrams. The film is slated for release in theaters in May of 2017, so expect news regarding the film to start rolling-out very quickly. In fact, we expect news on the second film in the Sequel Trilogy, to be a large part of this week’s D23.
Stay tuned here, to Dork Side of the Force, as we bring you live updates on all the Star Wars related happenings from this weekend’s D23 Convention — including Anthology Films, the Sequel Trilogy Films (The Force Awakens), and the various animated series and video games.