EW has just reported that Benicio Del Toro has had dealings with Lucasfilm to be cast as the villain in Star Wars: Episode 8. It should be noted that this in no way means it will be Del Toro in the end who gets the role, as many actors enter into talks with directors over roles and few go any farther than the talk itself. It does however, show Lucasfilm is on the ball with episode 8.
A fun little bit of Star Wars trivia: Benicio Del Toro almost landed the role of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, but left the project when George Lucas removed most of Maul’s lines from the film.
Author: Len Cline
Len Cline has been a fan of Star Wars since he saw a pirated “A New Hope” with a TV dinner when he was around 3 (He only remembers the Tantive 4 battle), he was in his “Primary Star Wars Introduction Age” (PSWIA for short) (aka. 7 years) when “Revenge of the Sith” came out. Len fell out of the active Star Wars fandom for a few years and explored the majority of science fiction eras (except for the 90’s , which is a big deal (Except for Star Trek) until he was brought back through the Star Wars podcasting community. Len loves to read science fiction (Asimov being his favourite writer) and also enjoys the classics (Dostoyevsky anyone?). He loves all things philosophy (Cogito ergo sum!), politics (De Toqueville and Machiavelli!), and poetry (Mathew Arnold and T.S. Eliot for the win!). He is also an anglophile. Len’s worldview is colored by many things in his life: He’s a devout Catholic and holds his beliefs high, as well as believing that morality and personal responsibility are paramount. Len hopes to move to Europe to attend college for philosophy and/or other social sciences. He then aims to put his studies to good use for the world (hopefully just like Luke Skywalker!).