"Star Wars Episode 7" might have locked down Peter Mayhew for Chewbacca's big screen return.
The Hollywood Reporter's sources claims Mayhew is returning to his franchise to reprise his role. The "Star Wars Episode 7" crew announced filming would begin in May, but has begun filming production in April. Mayhew has been cancelling appearances since the announcement of the production start date, including an upcoming panel for Comicpalooza.
Unfortunately for "Star Wars" fans, Lucasfilm and Disney Studios did not divulge any casting information in their production announcement, but did tease familiar faces would be rejoining the franchise.
"It has also been confirmed that Star Wars: Episode VII is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and will star a trio of new young leads along with some very familiar faces. No further details on casting or plot are available at this time," the "Star Wars" production said in a statement.
However, "Lost" actor Dominic Monaghan recently revealed to DweebCast director J.J. Abrams has a specific vision in mind when it comes casting his leads.
"[Abrams and I] talked about it a few times. Once I knew that he was doing 'Star Wars' I sent him a little congratulatory message and stuff," he told DweebCast. "We've talked a few times about it and he said 'We're putting together a cast of essentially unknowns. We want to follow the '77 'New Hope' cast'."
"Because obviously Harrison Ford wasn't well known at that point, Mark Hamill wasn't and Carrie Fisher wasn't either," he added. "What he said was, 'We don't want to fall into that mistake of people going 'Oh it's that guy from that thing!' and then you're completely out of the 'Star Wars' universe.' "
"Star Wars Episode 7" will be released on Dec. 18, 2015.
