The 5 Actors Battling For The Lead In 'Star Wars Episode 7'

Sources close to the Star Wars Episode 7 casting have confirmed that Disney and Lucasfilm has rounded the role of lead Jedi down to five young actors - one of whom will score the biggest movie part in years. With Girls star Adam Driver set to play the primary villain, Jj Abrams and his team have some context in which to cast the good-guy, and have selected their five would-be Jedi's.

After meeting with several actors over the past year, Abrams and his casting directors have chosen Downton Abbey star Ed Speelers, Attack the Block's John Boyega, Breaking Bad's Jesse Plemons and theatre actors Matthew James Thomas and Ray Fisher as the final five for the lead role.

Exact details of the character are vague - like just about everything else concerning Episode VII - but it is believed it will be a Jedi apprentice. The original draft by Michael Arndt was said to focus on Han Solo and Princess Leia's children, though Abrams' rewrite puts their offspring in a supporting role, according to Variety.

More: the Star Wars Episode VII shooting schedule.

Speelers, a 25-year-old actor from Chichester, England, played the lead role in the 2006 movie in Eragon though is best known for his role in the Emmy and Golden Globe winning Downton Abbey. He certainly appears to possess the physical attributes to play an apprentice Jedi, though one could argue he is too much of a safe choice with more interesting candidates up for the role.

Next page: who are the other actors battling for the Star Wars lead?

One of whom is Plemons, who played the alarmingly polite yet ruthless killer Todd in Breaking Bad. He also played Landry Clarke in Friday Night Lights so is relatively well-known to American audiences.

John Boyega offers another interesting option for Abrams. He was born in Peckham, South London, and played Moses in the 2011 science fiction movie Attack the Block. He also has experienced on the stage and appeared in Six Parties at the National Theatre and Category B at the Tricycle Theatre.

26-year-old Matthew James Thomas' experience lies almost solely in theatre and musical theatre. He played the title role in the Broadway revival of Pippin and also starred in the short-lived Spider-Man musical Turn off The Dark.

Ray Fisher also has theatre experience, playing Muhammad Ali on the New York stage last year in the play Fetch Clay, Make Man.

It is thought actors like David Oyelowo and Michael B. Jordan also tested for the role early on.

Star Wars Episode VII hits theaters on December 18, 2015. Production begins at Pinewood Studios, England, in May.

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