First Star Wars: Episode VII Behind The Scenes Image Features R2-D2 And J.J. Abrams

By Rudie Obias | Updated 5 years ago

Here it is! After a little over a year since the announcement that the Walt Disney Company would acquire Lucasfilm with the promise of Star Wars: Episode VII would be released in 2015, we’re finally getting a look at how production is rolling on the first entry in the new sequel trilogy. Today, a tweet from the official Bad Robot Twitter account showed off what J.J. Abrams and his team are working on with Star Wars: Episode VII. The tweet also confirmed the return of a beloved character from the Star Wars Saga.

Bad Robot Productions tweeted the above image of J.J. Abrams with R2-D2 from the Bad Robot/Star Wars workshop. There was no doubt that R2-D2 wouldn’t be in Star Wars: Episode VII, but this image absolutely confirms the droid’s appearance in the new film. If R2-D2 is in Episode VII, then you know C-3PO won’t be far behind. Actor Anthony Daniels let it spill at New York Comic-Con that C-3PO would appear in the droids’ seventh Star Wars film.

Currently, Star Wars: Episode VII is in pre-production with the recent announcement that the new film will be released in December of 2015. The new release date is part of a very competitive Christmas movie going season in 2015 with Duncan Jones’ WarCraft, Kung-Fu Panda 3, and Mission: Impossible 5 all slated for release around the same time. Disney also announced that production on the new film is scheduled to start sometime during the spring of 2014, so there’s at least a few months before the production team has to be at Pinewood Studios in London, England.

Disney and Lucasfilm are also currently taking online auditions for the film for two roles, “Rachel,” a beautiful, smart, and athletic female around 17 or 18 years old, and “Thomas,” a smart, handsome, athletic 19-23 year old. It seems like Disney and Lucasfilm are scouring the Earth to find the new leads for Star Wars: Episode VII.

While the new film doesn’t have a confirmed cast, actor Chiwetel Ejiofor is rumored to be up for a role in the new Star Wars movie. Ejiofor is just coming off his amazing performance in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, while he’s known to science fiction genre fans as The Operative in Joss Whedon’s Serenity. Chiwetel Ejiofor joins Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, David Oyelowo, Michael B. Jordan, Rachel Hurd-Wood, and Alex Pettyfer, who are all rumored to be up for roles in Episode VII.

Star Wars: Episode VII will hit theaters everywhere on December 18, 2015, in 3D.