Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany is among the actresses rumored to be contending for the female lead in the upcoming Star Wars standalone film directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Other actresses reportedly testing for the role include Oscar-nominated Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actress Rooney Mara and The Theory of Everything actress Felicity Jones, who’s among this this year’s recently announced Oscar nominees.
While she hasn’t earned an Oscar nomination, Maslany has earned widespread acclaim for her performance in the hit BBC America series, which follows a woman who comes face to face with the twin she didn’t know she had — only to learn that there’s more of them out there. Her lack of a Primetime Emmy Award nomination after two full seasons of successfully juggling multiple roles in the same program has caused no small amount of controversy among television critics and fans alike.
Maslany, Mara, and Jones are said to be testing for the Star Wars role this week along with several other actresses. There’s some indication that Jones might not be able to find time for the role due to her commitment to Inferno, director Ron Howard’s upcoming Da Vinci Code sequel.
Details are scarce regarding the character that the aforementioned actresses are testing for, but the film has been given a release date of December 16, 2016, so filming will need to get underway this year. The standalone movie directed by Edwards is one of two Star Wars spinoff films that were announced, with Chronicle director Josh Trank handling the second, currently unscheduled project.
The first draft of the standalone film’s script was completed by The Book of Eli and After Earth writer Gary Whitta, who also worked on The Walking Dead video game. He left the project late last year after finishing his initial script.
