The Star Wars franchise has had a lot of ups and downs since it relaunched under Disney. The new trilogy of Star Wars movies made billions of dollars, but were a mixed bag with fans. On Disney+, things have fared a bit better with the introduction of new characters in The Mandalorian and the return of fan favorites in Obi-Wan Kenobi. There is a lot of mystery about what the future holds for the world of Star Wars, but a new rumor has indicated that it could include Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. That sounds like an excellent piece of casting, but…she’s not playing a Jedi, right?
Millie Bobby Brown is great and if the recent rumor from the Mirror, which should be taken with a grain of salt, that she has been in talks with Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm are true, that’s wonderful. Whether she’s being considered for a future Star Wars movie or Disney+ series, she’d be a welcome addition to the franchise. However, since the world largely already knows her as “girl with magical brain powers,” I for one hope that she’s not being considered to play a Jedi, because then she’d just be playing a very similar role all over again.
On the one hand, it would make perfect sense for Lucasfilm to see Millie Bobby Brown’s performance as Eleven and see her as a Jedi Knight. She certainly has experience with “staring at thing and moving it with her brain” as a performance, but because we’ve seen that already, it would be nice that if there is a specific role in mind as part of these alleged talks, it involves something new that we haven't seen from her before.
Through Millie Bobby Brown’s role in Enola Holmes and other projects, we know she’s capable of a great deal more, and hopefully a role in the Star Wars franchise would give her the chance to do something a bit different rather than doing something so similar. Make her a smuggler with self-serving motives. Better yet, make her a villain. That could be a lot of fun.
For what it’s worth, Millie Bobby Brown has already made her interest in Star Wars known. Brown’s expressed some interest in playing Princess Leia if that option were available. She’s a couple years younger than Carrie Fisher was when she originated the role. Fans have shown through deepfakes that Brown could pull off a version of Leia quite well. Seeing something like that is far from impossible. A follow-up to Obi-Wan Kenobi could give us a version of Leia between that show and the original Star Wars. And seeing Brown as Leia wouldn’t be the first time that a Star Wars casting idea born on the internet came to fruition. Rosario Dawson’s role as Ahsoka Tano came from fans as well.
