May 4th is known globally as Star Wars Day. And it has been long rumored that this will be the date that LucasFilm and Disney finally make their big casting announcement for Star Wars: Episode VII. New sources have come forward to confirm that. Though they claim the studio will hold off on an official title announcement until Comic-Con in July.
Of course, this is all conjecture at this point. Neither Disney nor LucasFilm have confirmed any of this to be true.
The same thing was said last year around Star Wars Day, and May 4th came and went without a hint of what to expect. Not much was revealed all throughout 2013, and we're already five months into 2014 without much more to go on.
This May 4th could be a different story, though. Disney CEO Alan Horn recently confirmed that most of the cast was in place. And shooting has already begun on second unit background footage in Abu Dhabi. We're only 18 months out from the December 2015 release date, so something has to break soon.
A Vulture reporter helped fuel the May 4th fire by releasing this Tweet about the cast reveal, while saying that the title will be held until a later date.
Star Wars 7 casting announcements will come soon, but I'm told that Disney will hold the title reveal until Comic Con. Worked for Marvel...
— Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) April 24, 2014
Just yesterday, LucasFilm confirmed that no upcoming Star Wars movies or TV series would be based on Expanded Universe storylines or characters, relying only on the original six films as canon. They then revealed their plans for a novel series tied specifically into the cinematic universe.
We're all pretty sure that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams and Anthony Daniels will be back. Its something the actors themselves have been saying since the movie was first announced. We've also heard that Peter Mayhew is returning as Chewbacca despite his recent double knee surgery, from which he seems to be recovering from just fine. As for the rest of the cast, plenty of actors have been mentioned, but we're not sure if any of them made the cut.
Principle photo is supposed to start in May. So, will May 4th bring the riches we've so long waited for? Or will Star Wars Day come and go without so much as a beep from R2D2? We'll know one week from today.
Star Wars: Episode VII comes to theaters December 18th, 2015 and stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels. The film is directed by J.J. Abrams.