The first major Star Wars news of 2015 has arrived, and it’s pretty great: Twitch is reporting that three of the actors from The Raid and The Raid 2 will make an appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The report says that Iko Uwais (who played Rama in both films), Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog in The Raid and Prakoso in The Raid 2) and Cecep Arif Rahman (the unnamed assassin from The Raid 2‘s stellar kitchen sequence) will all be featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens – and while there is no official word on what their involvement might entail, a reliable source is telling /Film that the trio helped choreograph one of the film’s major fight sequences.
If you aren’t excited about this news, then chances are you haven’t seen The Raid or its sequel. Both films feature some truly amazing hand-to-hand combat, with a wide array of weapons and objects thrown into the fray. Lightsabers could definitely make things more interesting, and the thought of seeing one of those wildly inventive fight sequences in a Star Wars film, perhaps between Sith and Jedi, is almost enough to give me goosebumps.
As far as what their onscreen roles might entail, that’s anyone’s guess at this point. Representatives for all three actors have declined comment, and no one from Lucasfilm is saying a word. But if this turns out to be true (and it should, as /Film points out that Twitch editor Todd Brown served as producer on The Raid and The Raid 2), it’s just another example of J.J. Abrams’ desire to make a practical Star Wars film that seeks to further distance itself from the prequels by not being bogged down with too much CG.
So what do you think, readers? Are you excited about the prospect of having an absolutely insane fight sequence featuring these three actors? Sound off in the comments below.
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