Gareth Edwards’ STAR WARS SPIN-OFF Adds Kate Mara To The Roster of Potential Lead

By Christopher M.

Earlier this week, we reported via The Hollywood Reporter that actresses Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Rooney Mara (Pan, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Social Network) and Felicity Jones (Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything) were in the mix to test for the female lead of Gareth Edwards’ untitled Star Wars spin-off film.

Variety has added Kate Mara (Shooter, Iron Man 2) as a new candidate for an unnamed role. Mara will be making the jump to blockbuster lead with Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot in August.

Like her sister Rooney, Kate’s career upswing was thanks to David Fincher, casting her in the Netflix series House of Cards.

Twitter scoop following @Borys_Kit STAR WARS testing story from yesterday, hearing the fourth girl who tested is Rooney’s sister, Kate Mara
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) January 21, 2015

I’d be fine if all these ladies end up being in the film.

The film is set to begin production sometime soon to make it’s December 2016 release date. It’s script is written by Gary Whitta and producer Simon Kinberg handling rewrites. Simon is also the writer and producer of Fantastic Four which stars Kate.

Kinberg is co-writing Josh Trank’s (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) Star Wars spin-off as well, there are a bunch of connections between Fantastic Four and these spin-offs.