There hasn’t been any official news about Star Wars: Episode VII since the early June announcement about Lupita Nyong’o and Gwendoline Christie joining the cast. Despite a surge of rumors in recent weeks surrounding the leg injury Harrison Ford sustained on set – people thought it would delay the release date or cause rewrites – Lucasfilm and Disney haven’t commented until now. Ford is recovering from the injury, and while it may have resulted in production needing to be rearranged, it will only cause a two week hiatus in August. Episode VII will still wrap filming in the fall to hit the December 18, 2015 release. Whew.

And that’s not the only news! It’s like Star Wars Christmas! Lucasfilm and Disney have also revealed the results of the open casting calls they hosted at the end of 2013. The auditions took place in 11 cities and over 37,000 actors attended. An additional 30,000 actors submitted their application via the web. I don’t know about you, but I really hope some of the audition videos make their way into the extras on the Episode VII Blu-ray.

Two of the auditions are more likely to make it to the public’s eyes: Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen were both chosen from the open casting call. Clarke is an American actress with experience on stage and on screen; her first feature film, The Moon and the Sun, will be out in 2015. Andersen is a British actor who does parkour and does it so well that he was hired to showcase the skill in a Spider-Man commercial for Sony. Seems like he’s made to be a Jedi.

Any guesses about who Clarke and Andersen will portray? Jump to the comments and let us know what you think.

HT: StarWars.com