Star Wars Spin-Off Lines Up Its Leading Lady

We still know very little about this mysterious project, but we now have confirmation on at least one thing. The 2016 Star Wars spin-off movie has reportedly cast Felicity Jones in a lead role.

Felicity Jones, where have I seen her before?

Jones most recently appeared in The Theory of Everything as Jane Wilde Hawking, for which she picked up an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also had a small-ish role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Felicia Harding (Black Cat’s alter ego). It was expected that this role would be expanded in future Spidey movies, but with Sony on the fence as far as that franchise is concerned, it sounds like her schedule is pretty open.

Which Star Wars movie is this again?

This will be the first “spin-off” film in the series, to be released in between episodes 7 and 8. It’s being directed by Godzilla‘s Gareth Edwards, with a script by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. We don’t actually know what it’s about yet, but rumors keep circulating about a possible story involving a young Han Solo and Boba Fett teaming up for a heist. While that’s still 100% in rumor territory, that sounds pretty awesome to me.

When is it coming out?

We’ll be seeing this one on December 16, 2016, almost exactly one year after this year’s Star Wars movie, JJ Abrams’ The Force Awakens. It will be followed by episode 8 in 2017.