‘The Raid’ stars reveal how they got their roles in ‘Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens’

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens may hold a special place for Indonesian film aficionados as three of the country’s action superstars, Yayan Ruhian, Iko Uwais and Cecep Arif Rahman all play a part in the continuation of the saga.

Yayan and Iko, who starred in the critically lauded action masterpieces The Raid and its sequel, The Raid 2, recently revealed how they ended up with roles in The Force Awakens.

It turns out that The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams initially sought them out to help with choreography before handing them roles in the movie.

“Before the shoot we had a meeting with J.J. Abrams. At the time we were promoting The Raid 2. J.J. asked us for fighting choreography ideas. We promised then that The Raid team can give him a surprise,” Iko Uwais said after the movie’s press screening yesterday, as quoted by Detik.

(WARNING! Potential spoilers ahead!)

Of course, we found out that The Raid stars are going to play awesome-looking space pirates in The Force Awakens, thanks to this leak. They also don’t seem to be just minor characters as they already have their own Lego action figures made.

But are they going to appear in any more Star Wars movies beyond The Force Awakens?

Well, according to Yayan Ruhian, they won’t tell us even if they are because of a non-disclosure agreement they have with J.J. Abrams.

“One can only hope. For the last one (The Force Awakens) we had to be quiet about it for two years, let alone the next one” Yayan said with a laugh.

Well, we’ll know for sure if the space pirates can survive beyond The Force Awakens when it arrives in Indonesian cinemas on December 18.



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on