With the big heroes in their 50s, 60s and 70s, the usually reliable JJ Abrams is plunging the Girls star into a fearsome spotlight
• Girls star Adam Driver set to play Star Wars villain, reports say
If there is one area where JJ Abrams usually gets it right, it is casting. He was on the money when he picked the relatively untried Chris Pine to play the new Captain Kirk in 2009's rebooted Star Trek. He nailed it when he saw the potential of Phillip Seymour Hoffman to portray one of the most sinister villains in recent Hollywood history in 2006's unexpectedly good Mission: Impossible III. And he may yet have come up trumps with the casting of Girls' Adam Driver as a Darth Vader-like nasty in the mega-hyped upcoming Star Wars revival: Episode VII. Even so, from what we think we know about the first Disney-produced film in the long-running space saga, this seems like a skewiff decision.
Star Wars: Episode VII has been the subject of more spurious casting rumours than just about any film in Hollywood history, but Driver's entry into final negotiations for the role of the main bad guy has been confirmed by all the main US trade publications and looks close to a done deal. Yet we are also told the new film was recently retooled to centre on the classic characters of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo, played by 62-year-old Mark Hamill, 57-year-old Carrie Fisher and 71-year-old Harrison Ford. In that context it looks very strange indeed for Abrams to pick such a youthful-looking villain to go up against his crinkly lead trio.
Driver is 30, but despite his impressive size looks, and often plays, younger. His appointment would have made a great deal of sense if Star Wars: Episode VII was still shooting from the abandoned Michael Arndt version of the script, which reportedly centred on a new generation of Skywalkers and Solos. But it seems a little pointless "skewing young" for the lucrative under-25 audience when your main heroes are fast approaching (or in Ford's case have passed) retirement age.
Driver's reported casting comes a couple of weeks after Jesse Eisenberg was named as the new Lex Luthor in the forthcoming "Superman vs Batman" movie, a move observers said had been implemented to ensure Zack Snyder's Man of Steel sequel appealed to younger filmgoers. It seems unlikely that Abrams, who played pretty hard-to-get before finally agreeing to direct Episode VII, is under studio pressure to do something similar. And yet the reaction to Driver's casting is likely to mirror the response to Eisenberg's seizing of the Luthor mantle, which has largely centred on The Social Network star's callow looks.
You have to wonder whether an actor with a little more gravitas might have been a more sensible choice for Episode VII. Michael Fassbender and Hugo Weaving, actors established as go-to Hollywood bad guys, were also said to be in the running. But Abrams does at least score points, if the news is confirmed, in his apparent determination to think outside the box.
If Driver emerges as the breakout star of Episode VII, this is a move which will be hailed as a genius decision. Perhaps the Lost creator, not known as a conservative film-maker, needs to satisfy a need to stamp his own mark on the space opera. Or it might be that Driver's Vader-like villain is simply a hangover from previous versions of the script who will come into his own when younger heroes grab their lightsaber-shaped batons in later films. Of course it's worth pointing out that this is Star Wars, a universe in which a decrepit and ancient green alien dwarf can lift a starfighter from a gloopy swamp just by closing his eyes (or spin through the air like Sonic the Hedgehog if you believe the irritating prequels). In some ways, age matters little.
What's certain is that Vader is a tough act to follow for any actor. It took two men to play the villain in the original trilogy: one (Dave Prowse) to provide his imposing stature and muscular power, the other (James Earl Jones) to deliver his sumptuously sinister tones. Driver, at a tall and muscular 6ft 3in, might just have the attributes to do it all by himself. But he only has to ask Hayden Christensen for advice if he wants to find out how it can all go horribly wrong.
The Canadian actor, who played whiny proto Sith Lord Anakin Skywalker in the final two Star Wars prequels, has unsurprisingly slipped off the radar since. Driver, consistently excellent in HBO's addictively leftfield Girls and praised for small roles in the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davies and Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, looks a different proposition. His unorthodox looks alone – weaselly yet muscular like a geeky American Football quarterback – mark him out as an actor who does not fit the identikit Hollywood mould. But as the first cast member to be convincingly named for Episode VII, the San Diego-born actor will find himself plunged into a spotlight as intense and fearsome as the one endured by his predecessor between now and the film's release in December 2015.
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