Felicity Jones and Aaron Paul expected to lead Star Wars spinoff

All previous reports speculating who would be heading to a galaxy far, far away in the Star Wars spinoff, hinted that Felicity Jones was a serious contender for the female lead.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Disney also saw Rooney Mara and Tatiana Maslany for the part and after a series of ‘hush-hush readings and tests’ have now ‘zeroed in’ on Jones.

Does this override last week's supposed rumor that Maslany had snagged a part in the standalone caper? Possibly. But, there’s still the chance of more than one significant female role appearing in the sci-fi script. Fingers crossed.

Another new name thrown into the pit is none other than Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, who has cropped up on this latest bit of intel. He’s accompanied on that rumored shortlist by Zero Dark Thirty’s Edgar Ramirez.

Written by Chris Weitz and directed by Gareth Edwards, the Star Wars spinoff movie is scheduled to arrive on December 16, 2016.

Gem Seddon

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.