Leading up to the release of next year’s Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Jason Reitman (Up In The Air, Thank You For Smoking) is bringing the perennial classic, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, to life via live read with the help of a few extremely notable actors and actresses.

Here’s the list:

Aaron Paul as Luke Skywalker
J.K. Simmons as Darth Vader
Stephen Merchant as C3P0
Kevin Pollak as Yoda
Dennis Haysbert as Lando Calrissian
Jessica Alba as Princess Leia

Oh, and Ellen Page as Han Solo.

Beyond the obvious, there is soooo much to celebrate and discuss about this cast! Tenzin himself voicing the greatest villain in cinema history (I went there). Is he going to wheeze? Who knows!? And SUCH an inspired choice for the sassiest, heart-of-goldiest character in the SW universe. When asked why he chose Ellen Page to play the Corellian scoundrel, Reitman responded:

“In casting Han, the most important thing is: Who has the most interesting, ironic approach to life? And when I think of that, I think of Ellen Page. She’s a small human being who has the energy to fill Madison Square Garden,” said Reitman. “For Leia, I just wanted to find an actress who was beautiful and also had the ability to be tough and funny, and I’ve seen Alba do all of that. And I needed somebody who would have chemistry with Ellen.”

And there you have it.

As a life-long Star Wars devotee, I couldn’t be more excited about seeing this frankly exhilarating list of actors take on the best Star Wars script in existence… so far.

If any of you is lucky/skilled enough to have a ticket to this thing, bless you. Enjoy your hour and a half of awesome. Record it for us? Pretty please?

Image courtesy of Lucasfilm; Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images