In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novel Heir to the Empire, a trilogy that kicked off the present era of post-Return of the Jedi adventures, Suvudu is asking you to cast the characters from the book using contemporary actors.
They started out with characters from the series, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, and Palleon, but are now recasting Han Solo, Leia, Luke, and more! Controversial, yes, but really fun once you move past that. Suvudu gives you a poll of contemporary actors with each role, but you can also write in your own. Visitors have until Wednesday September 21st to cast their votes.
Suvudu’s poll struck up a storm of discussion in the office. Here’s who we picked, write-ins and all.
Grand Admiral Thrawn: Hugo Weaving
This was the first actor we thought of, and it was on the list. Perfect.
Paelleon: Paul Giamatti
We like the idea of Paelleon of being a bit different from the other Imperial officers we’ve seen.
Talon Karrde: Viggo Mortensen
A gruff cad who is ultimately honorable? That has TV’s Aragorn all over it.
Joruss C’Baoth: Sean Connery
Yeah, this one doesn’t quite make sense but Sean Connery is our favorite person, and we bet he’d come out of retirement for Star Wars.
Wedge Antilles: Russell Tovey
You can’t have a big-name leading man play Wedge, there’s already too many stars on this. Adorable and reliable Russell Tovey (Being Human, Doctor Who) would be preferable.
Mara Jade: Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich already looks like she’s going to kill us half of the time. She’s dangerous. And their intials are the same. Snap.
Lando Calrissian: Don Cheadle
He’s handsome and funny. And after that Captain Planet video, he can do no wrong.
Han Solo: Robert Downey Jr.
Okay. We know. Everybody says Nathan Fillion. But you know what? He’s already done it. Let’s do a reinterpretation of the character. You don’t want someone aping Han Solo, you want a new one. Downey Jr. can do that.
Leia Organa Solo: Maggie Gyllenhaal
She’s never been bad in a movie and it would be hawt with Downey Jr. So hawt that we wrote the term “hawt” and meant it seriously.
Luke Skywalker: Chris Pine
Yep. That’s right. We went there.
Be sure to cast all your votes at Suvudu.com before Wednesday!
Stubby the Rocket is the voice and mascot of Tor.com. It would eventually like to be recast as either the Enterprise-E or maybe a Battlestar in its prime.
