Benedict Cumberbatch is the latest name to be linked to a role in Star Wars Episode 7 (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

Speculation is rife that Benedict Cumberbatch will be the first name unveiled by Lucasfilm for the cast of Star Wars Episode 7.

According to Film Chronicles, the actor will reunite with his Star Trek Into Darkness director JJ Abrams on the upcoming sci-fi film.

It is not known what role Cumberbatch would be playing as the plot has so far been kept top secret.

Cumberbatch recently pulled out of Guillermo del Toro’s horror movie Crimson Peak although The Hollywood Reporter claimed it was not due to another project.


Benedict Cumberbatch played baddie John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness (Picture: Paramout Pictures)

Crimson Peak and Star Wars Wpisode 7 are set to be in production around the same time though.



The Sherlock star has admitted before that he was a Star Wars fan as a child.

He told Total Film: ‘I was much more connected to [Star Wars] as a kid, in the way that a lot of kids are because it’s immediate storytelling, very simple – a beautifully, outrageously simple narrative in a way – and a wonderful three-act melodrama, opera. And I loved them.

‘I really, really loved those films and I always wanted to be Han Solo. Everything Harrison Ford did I just thought was the coolest thing ever.’

Cumberbatch is the latest in a line of A-list names linked to the film with Ryan Gosling, Zac Efron and Leonardo DiCaprio also said to have met with Disney to discuss parts in the film.

Star Wars Episode 7 is due out in 2015.