In what’s got to be a bit of a blow for Charlize Theron, Star Wars: Episode IX has reportedly put out a casting call searching for an actress described as “a younger Charlize Theron with street smarts and a sharp wit,” somewhere between 25 and 27 years of age of any ethnicity and who must have “a good sense of humor, solid comedic timing and a strong voice.” Word is this new character’s named Karina and given that the First Order has not been previously known for its members’ comedic timing, it’s safe to say she’s on the side of the heroes.
This news comes to us via That Hashtag Show, who previously revealed that the film was looking for a 40-50 old year woman to play ‘Mara‘ (this announcement launched a million speculative articles about Mara Jade being in the movie, obviously) and an 18-26 year old black actress to play a lead female character who was initially known as ‘Caro.’ No further details on either role were disclosed, though.
Things have changed a bit since then, however, with ‘Caro’ being renamed ‘Lucy’ (which I gotta say is a disappointingly un-Star-Wars-y name) and we’re also hearing that ‘Mara’ might now be cut from the movie. In addition, THS claims that we can expect to see the return of Lupita Nyong’o’s Maz Kanata, who was absent from The Last Jedi save for a hologram cameo.
Whatever the case, it seems that the cast and plot of Episode IX are still very much in flux, despite the film having begun shooting in Pinewood Studios in the UK. Given that pretty much all of Disney’s Star Wars movies have suffered some degree of production woes, it’s not a surprise that this one is undergoing some on-set rewrites involving new characters being introduced. Still, no doubt the studio will be hoping that Star Wars: Episode IX is going to be more of a smoothly produced Last Jedi and not a nightmarishly chaotic Solo.
