Star Wars Casting Rumor: Is singer Florence Welch being eyed for a starring role in Episode VII?

The rumor mill for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII has been churning for a while now with no true confirmations. Even the return of Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher is still speculation without an official confirmation from Disney. We heard that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers may be in contention for a role and FRINGE’s John Noble has openly lobbied J.J. Abrams for a part. Now comes a rumor about a potential actor that I don’t think anyone saw coming.

British tabloid The Sun is reporting that Florence Welch, lead singer of the band Florence + The Machine, is being eyed for a “leading role” in the new STAR WARS trilogy. Welch has no acting experience aside from a part in the untitled musical film from Terrence Malick starring Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale. STAR WARS: EPISODE VII would potentially be her big screen debut.

Welch’s striking red hair immediately made me think she would be a good fit to play Mara Jade, wife to Luke Skywalker and first introduced in Timothy Zahn’s HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. While George Lucas has already said the new films are not based on any of the expanded universe novels, that does not mean he couldn’t have incorporated characters from those spin-off novels and comics.

This is purely a rumor at this point, but an interesting one. Welch and Rhys-Meyers are both famous faces but also unknown enough to make this casting seem plausible. But, until we see an official press release, consider it as nothing but rumor.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII is slated for a 2015 release.