Adam Driver in talks to star alongside Matt Damon in The Last Duel

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Per Variety, STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER's Adam Driver is in early talks to join the cast of Ridley Scott's THE LAST DUEL, a revenge story based on the novel by Eric Jager which is set to star Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

In a bit of a twist, it seems that Adam Driver is in talks to step into the role which was to have been played by Ben Affleck, who will now play a supporting role due to scheduling conflicts with another film. Set in 14th century France, THE LAST DUEL is said to be an epic tale of betrayal and justice which will be told from three distinct points of view, that of two knights (Damon and Driver), whose bond is tested by treachery, as well as a young woman (Jodie Comer) who is forced to navigate the brutal and oppressive culture of the era in order to survive. Nicole Holofcener (ENOUGH SAID) is co-writing the script with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which marks the first collaboration on a script between Damon and Affleck since GOOD WILL HUNTING, and although Disney/Fox hasn't yet greenlit the film, it could begin production in early 2020 if all goes well.

A synopsis of "The Last Duel" via Amazon:

When Jean de Carrouges, a Norman knight, returns from combat in Scotland to find his wife, Marguerite, accusing Jacques LeGris, her husband’s old friend and fellow courtier, of brutally raping her, the knight takes his cause before the teenage King Charles VI. Amid LeGris’s vociferous claims of innocence and doubts about the now pregnant Marguerite’s charges (and about the paternity of her child), the deadlocked court decrees a “trial by combat” that leaves her fate, too, in the balance. For if her husband and champion loses the duel, she will be put to death as a false accuser.

Carrouges and LeGris, in full armor, eventually meet on a walled field in Paris before a massive crowd that includes the king and many nobles of the realm. A fierce fight on horseback and then on foot ensues during which both combatants suffer wounds—but only one fatal. The violent and tragic episode was notorious in its own time because of the nature of the alleged crime, the legal impasse it provoked, and the resulting trial by combat, an ancient but increasingly suspect institution that was thereafter abolished.

Adam Driver will soon be seen in THE REPORT, which will hit select theaters on November 15, 2019 before streaming on Amazon Prime on November 29, 2019. Next up is MARRIAGE STORY with Scarlett Johannson, which is slated to hit Netflix on December 6, 2019, and of course, there's STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER on December 20, 2019 which is slated to wrap up the entire saga. It's the winter of Driver.