Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o and Game Of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie have been added to the cast of the new Star Wars film.
Mexican-Kenyan Lupita has landed her role after drawing acclaim for her performance in 12 Years A Slave and landing an Academy Award earlier this year.
British actress Gwendoline has built up her profile after appearing as Brienne of Tarth in epic fantasy series Game Of Thrones and will soon be in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.
They join original members of the first Star Wars trilogy of movies Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in the cast for the eagerly anticipated Episode VII which began production last month.
Other figures who will be seen in the movie - being directed by JJ Abrams - include Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis and Domhnall Gleeson.
Kathleen Kennedy, the president of production company Lucasfilm, said: "I could not be more excited about Lupita and Gwendoline joining the cast of Episode VII. It's thrilling to see this extraordinarily talented ensemble taking shape."
Composer John Williams returns once again to create the score for the film, as he has done on all six of the Star Wars films. He won an Oscar for his work on the first of the movies.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article