Star Wars casting finally gets around to you
Finally validating reports first made by The A.V. Club that eventually you would be rumored to join the new Star Wars cast, director J.J. Abrams has released the below video inviting you—yes, you, unless your name is Billy Dee Williams—to come and be a part of the movie. Abrams is extending the offer as part of the Star Wars: Force For Change initiative through Disney/Lucasfilm, which will benefit UNICEF’s Innovation Labs and its dedication to “finding creative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems.” (“Even the world’s biggest problems would be no match for a moon-sized battlestation,” someone at Lucasfilm probably did not suggest, because this is serious.)
Everyone who donates $10 to the charity’s website before July 1 is automatically entered to win a chance to be flown to the set of Episode VII, where they will meet the cast before likely being dressed up as some sort of alien, and probably thrust far into the background behind characters who actually matter. Nevertheless, you will technically “be in Star Wars,” with all the decades of lucrative convention appearances that promises.
As an example of what you can expect, this video from the film’s Abu Dhabi set—the first, non-sand-covered-clapboard look at the new Star Wars—features a grim, hunchbacked creature stumbling into frame behind Abrams, saddled with a cumbersome pack of chicken-like things. That could be you!