Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynne Hale Friday denied reports that the next installment of the Star Wars saga will feature such potentially controversial characters as "a Native American with a forceful, spiritual nature."

"In addition to the fact that we won't have character descriptions until the script is finished, the descriptions reported would never be appropriate for a Star Wars film," she wrote in a brief to fans, posted on the company's website.

Of the three descriptions cited Wednesday by the newspaper, two -- the "spiritual" Native American and an Asian character "possibly trained in martial arts" -- have been perceived as perpetrating positive but still offensive stereotypes.

Variety has yet to print a retraction of the story, which was repeated by this website and others

Hale underscored Lucasfilm's official stance that the Star Wars milieu has no place for earthly issues of race.

"The diversity of actors who have appeared in Star Wars [Episode One] such as Pernilla August (Anakin's mother), Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka), Dhruv Chanchani (Kitster) and Kristina DaSilva (Rabe) were chosen for the talent they brought to their roles," she said, "not because they were Swedish, Ghanaian, Indian or Brazilian."

"The Star Wars movies have always been populated with a rich cast of characters that make up this fantasy world."

In other Episode Two casting news, Hale noted that because Lucas is still working on the script, casting has been restricted to the search for the adolescent Anakin Skywalker.

She said Gurland has not yet narrowed her field of 300 candidates down to any sort of "short list" and that the casting director "is still exploring many possibilities."