Facts: - Pip is a UK-based parkour artist who was cast in The Force Awakens after auditioning for the open casting call in 2013. He and Crystal Clarke were announced together. - Last month, he said that he filmed with Harrison, Daisy, and John, but most of his scenes were with the kids rather than Harrison. He did not get to shoot with Mark, yet he had enough clearance to see a lot of other scenes being filmed. - He’s not a mo-cap character. - He is very cute. Speculation: - There were rumors that he’s playing a stormtrooper trying to defect from the First Order, but his costume + some other details have ruled that out. - I spent the past year thinking he had a small role, but. But. Here’s the thing. It turns out a lot of people including myself misinterpreted the open casting call’s purpose, because for a while, it was accepted that it was just an audition for one male and one female role (tl;dr there were two roles dubbed “Rachel and Thomas” who were based on Katniss and Peeta and, well, we thought they were just for whoever Pip and Crystal are playing). As it turns out, a few other TFA actors were “discovered” from the same audition and many young adult actors read the same “Rachel and Thomas” lines for secrecy purposes. There’s speculation that John and Daisy were found at this audition, too, because there were sightings of “lots of petite brunette girls who looked like Carrie” getting callbacks.

- So like, okay, Pip and Crystal are definitely 100% confirmed by the official site. Now that I know more about the other young adult actors, I’m thinking this means both have more of a substantial role than most of us are assuming. First, we know that Maisie Richardson-Sellers is in this film and shares scenes with Leia because…. Carrie’s assistant blabbed all about it on Twitter, whoops. Spoiler reports say that Maisie is playing a member of Leia’s entourage and is an aide or emissary of some kind and it’s a speaking role. If that’s true, then, I mean…. it just strikes me as odd that *she* and other young actors with minor-yet-not-quite-extra roles haven’t officially been announced, because this is a huge galaxy with a million characters, and you know any potential Leia aides/handmaidens (dkjfjriuy49u68sjhjhsiuw0yu!!!!!!!!) are going to be named characters with their own backstories.

- SECOND, in that same interview from May, he said his character “would be loved” by the audience so it was a lot of pressure. Again, it’s a huge galaxy with tons of characters and I say shit like “I LOVE HONDO” with as much enthusiasm as “I LOVE LEIA,” so…. he could just be a minor character who makes a big impact because he’s funny or something, ORRRRR, he could have a larger role, which leads us to…

NICOLE’S SHALLOW AND OPTIMISTIC HOPES FOR PIP:

→There’s another concept art description from Making Star Wars today, perhaps one from the same sequence as the battle art we saw a few weeks ago.

→ Actor Pip Anderson was at the Imaginarium. Make of that what you will.

→ A report from a talk with editor Mary Jo Markey. She doesn’t talk about Episode VII, but you don’t really expect her to, do you?

Christina Chong Added to STAR WARS: EPISODE VII Cast List

First reported exclusively by Latino Review and later verified by Variety, British actress Christina Chong has apparently joined the cast of STAR WARS: EPISODE VII currently filming in the UK.

Perhaps best known currently as Mariana in the thriller TV series 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY starring Keifer Sutherland, Chong has also appeared in UK series MONROE, WHITECHAPEL, the feature film JOHNNY ENGLISH…