With the major cast of JJ Abrams's Star Wars: Episode VII confirmed at long last, the hyperactive rumour mill isn't likely to wind down so much as shift focus - who are these people playing? How many roles are still to be cast? How involved is George Lucas, exactly?

But in the meantime, let's take a look at the seven actors that have been confirmed. While many of them couldn't be described as unknowns, a few of them do fall squarely into the "that guy" category -Â you've seen them in a handful of movies, but you may not know their name.

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Digital Spy takes you through the new recruits' CV highlights below...

John Boyega

Peckham-born Boyega first shot to attention playing the hero of Joe Cornish's South London sci-fi Attack the Block. The part netted him acting nominations at the British Independent Film, Empire and Evening Standard British Film Awards, and since then he's featured in Becoming Human and Law & Order: UK on the small screen and films Half of a Yellow Sun and Imperial Dreams.

Boyega's shown himself to be adept at playing characters with brooding angst and quiet inner strength, something that he's bound to utilise as one of the trio of fresh leads in Episode VII. How will he fare as a lightsaber-swinging Jedi hero? Watch the extended Attack the Block clip below to see him in action.

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Daisy Ridley

Where do you know Daisy Ridley from? You don't, probably. This young British actress is an unknown to the point where even her age is a mystery. Her first listed screen appearance was last year in an episode of Casualty, shortly after which she appeared in an episode of Toast of London, and two episodes of Silent Witness.

While Ridley's never appeared in a film before, she's got a "good role" lined up in the upcoming Inbetweeners 2, which began its UK filming in January. So while the early rumour that Abrams and his producers were keen to cast unknowns hasn't otherwise been borne out, Ridley's role as - wild speculation alert - Leia and Han's daughter will be close enough to her big screen debut.



Oscar Isaac

Most recently seen being robbed of an Oscar nomination for his remarkable performance in the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis, the Guatemala-born Isaac has been doing quietly great work in patchy projects for years. Prior to his breakout with Llewyn Davis, he stood out as one of the few good things about Ridley Scott's Robin Hood as the charismatic villain King John, and brought depth to what could have been a stock 'bad husband' character in Drive.

There'll be plenty more chances for audiences to get familiar with Isaac before the end of 2015 - he plays a slick con artist opposite Viggo Mortensen in upcoming Patricia Highsmith adaptation The Two Faces of January, and just wrapped shooting sci-fi thriller Ex Machina alongside fellow new Star Wars recruit Domhnall Gleeson.

Adam Driver

As recently as two years ago, nobody had heard of Adam Driver. When Lena Dunham cast him to play her character's creepy, borderline sexual deviant boyfriend in the first season of HBO series Girls, his arc was intended to be brief. But Driver brought such a weirdly hypnotic charisma and pathos to the role that Adam was rewritten as a flawed guy with a heart of gold, and became such a clear standout that Hollywood couldn't ignore him.

The rumour mill started churning about Driver possibly being cast as a Star Wars villain months ago, and since then he's wrapped up films with Martin Scorsese, Noah Baumbach and Jeff Nichols to name a few. But his most significant role to date is still Girls, which could get awkward if his new, younger Star Wars fans decide to start digging into his previous work.

And since Abrams & co are unlikely to employ either one of their vocal talents in quite the same way, you can watch Driver and Isaac singing together in Inside Llewyn Davis below.

Domhnall Gleeson

Despite an impressive theatrical CV - Gleeson made his Tony-nominated Broadway debut at the age of 23 - this young Irish actor didn't break out on the big screen until he became Bill Weasley in 2010's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

He's been making movies pretty solidly since, chalking up an impressive range of roles in literary adaptations including the Coen brothers' True Grit, Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go and Joe Wright's Anna Karenina. Gleeson was most recently seen as the time-traveling "new Hugh Grant" in Richard Curtis's rom-com About Time.

As with all the new recruits, there's not a shred of info on who Gleeson might be playing, but at a glance you'd have good reason to think "Luke Skywalker's son". And since Gleeson has acted alongside his dad Brendan on more than one occasion, we're now just crossing our fingers for the latter to be cast in a supporting role. He'd make a good Jedi Council member, no?

Andy Serkis

The king of performance capture, Serkis is the best in the business when it comes to lending a human touch to complex digital characters. He's brought to life Gollum and King Kong for Peter Jackson, and worked to fashion Planet of the Apes's Caesar into a compelling screen presence.

Abrams will most likely be more familiar with Serkis's blockbuster work, but the great thing about him is he's an excellent actor outside of that realm too. He was unforgettable as Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, so don't completely rule him out when it comes to appearing 'in person'.

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Max von Sydow

The word 'legend' is often bandied around too often, but in the case of Max von Sydow it's more than appropriate. The 85-year-old's body of work is incredible to say the least - he began in theatre in his homeland of Sweden before making 11 films with Ingmar Bergman, including The Seventh Seal, which saw his Antonius Block play chess with Death. Hollywood fell for his booming voice and formidable presence, and he took roles in Never Say Never Again, Dune, Three Days of the Condor and many more.

von Sydow is perhaps best known for playing Father Merrin in horror classic The Exorcist and Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon, the latter ironically inspiring George Lucas to create Star Wars when he couldn't attain the film rights.

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