Adam Driver's Dark Side of The Force

In what's sounding like pretty official news, Variety is reporting in an "exclusive," that Girls star Adam Driver has pen poised to ink a deal as the villain in Star Wars VII for director J.J. Abrams.

This is the first real casting announcement since it became official that Fisher, Ford and Hamill would be on board to continue the original saga. A tweet from Driver's Girls costar Lena Dunham only served to push this out of rumor territory: "We're VERY proud of Adam Driver re: Star Wars. He's about to rip a hole in da force." Driver supposedly beat out the likes of Hugo Weaving and Michael Fassbender for the role, "...in the vein of Darth Vader." The deal is expected to close soon as they work out Driver's scheduling issues on Girls. 

This is big news to be sure. With shooting scheduled to begin at Pinewood in April, expect a lot more casting news in the next month.