Over the weekend a rumor surfaced that Beyond the Lights star Gugu Mbatha-Raw was up for a role in Star Wars: Episode VIII, putting her in the mix alongside Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany and Olivia Cooke. With Rian Johnson's film reportedly featuring two major female roles it was expected they would be cast from the four women on the short list. According to Collider, one of those roles has now been filled by Mbatha-Raw.
Their story doesn't add anything in the way of new details, and actually Collider doesn't seem to have known Mbatha-Raw was up for the film at all until now. They say she and the other finalists went through chemistry reads with John Boyega, whose character will apparently survive Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Otherwise there's no additional info on Mbatha-Raw's casting, and certainly nothing on the character she'll be playing.
Nothing is truly confirmed until Disny and Lucasfilm make it official, but if true this continues a welcome streak of diversity in the new Star Wars trilogy. Star Wars: Episode VIII opens May 26th 2017.
