While a new magazine article confirmed many longstanding rumors about certain new characters and locations to be seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it also raised a few new questions and revved up our nerd theory engines.
Here are the eight biggest things we're most curious about after reading Vanity Fair's cover story and seeing Annie Leibovitz's portfolio of cool new photos, starting with ...
We learned at Star Wars Celebration that Kelly Marie Tran plays The Last Jedi's most pivotal new character, Rose, a maintenance worker in the Resistance who teams up with John Boyega's Finn. Now the Vanity Fair article reveals Rose's last name is "Tico" and that "her plotline involves a mission behind enemy lines with Boyega’s Finn." Furthermore, Rose has a sister named Paige, who, in footage observed by Vanity Fair, shares scenes with Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron. Paige (played by Vietnamese actress Veronica Ngo) is said to be a gunner being coached by X-Wing pilot Poe.
One location that Finn and Rose's mission takes them to is the luxurious, glitzy casino city of Canto Bight. Last Jedi director Rian Johnson told Vanity Fair that Canto Bight is "a Star Wars Monte Carlo–type environment, a little James Bond–ish, a little To Catch a Thief." (Johnson previously cited Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief as an influence on The Last Jedi due to its "romantic scale and grandeur.")
Unlike so many of the other hardscrabble, rugged environments depicted in Star Wars movies, Johnson wanted to show a new setting where opulence and "ultra-glamour" were the defining traits. "Let’s create a playground, basically, for rich a**holes," as Johnson put it to Vanity Fair.
Expect these Canto Bight sequences to offer some levity and where viewers will meet a cross-section of alien species a la the Mos Eisley scenes in A New Hope. “I didn’t want this to be a dirge, a heavy-osity movie,” Johnson said. “So one thing I’ve tried really hard to do is keep the humor in there, to maintain the feeling, amid all the heavy operatic moments, that you’re on a fun ride.”
Benicio del Toro's unnamed character
The moral ambiguity of Benicio del Toro's character has us more than a little intrigued. He's described as a "'shady character' of unclear allegiances ... who goes unnamed in the film but is called DJ by the filmmakers." Last Jedi director Rian Johnson added, "You’ll see—there’s a reason why we call him DJ." Hmmm, a "'shady character' of unclear allegiances" in the second installment of a Star Wars trilogy? Sounds like del Toro/DJ might be the Lando Calrissian, if you will, of The Last Jedi.
Laura Dern's Amilyn Holdo
Th Jurassic Park and Big Little Lies actress plays "a prominent officer in the Resistance named Vice Admiral Holdo." (The character's name and look were first rumored back in April.) Lucasfilm creative exec Pablo Hidalgo, according to Vanity Fair, confirmed that Holdo "is human. The magenta hair, he says, has to do with her 'cultural background.' When quizzed on whether this is the first time a human in the films has adopted such an unnatural hue, Hidalgo responded like a walking encyclopedia with a sense of humor, 'I know there was a platinum blonde in Jabba’s Palace whose hair color was probably suspicious, but only her hair dresser knows for sure.'" Could Holdo hail from the wealthy, snobby casino community of Canto Bight?
Oscar Isaac revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that his character, the Resistance's ace pilot Poe Dameron, has a particularly heated scene with the late Carrie Fisher's General Leia Organa at one point. "We did this scene where Carrie has to slap me," said Isaac. "I think we did 27 takes in all, and Carrie leaned into it every time, man. She loved hitting me." So why would Leia assault her most loyal officer, the one she entrusted in The Force Awakens with attaining the map to her missing brother Luke's whereabouts?
Given Luke's hope to end the Jedi, perhaps Poe distrusts Luke once they've found him? (Isaac said he also filmed scenes with Hamill that take place near the end of the movie.) It could be a case of be careful what you seek as you may not like what you find. Leia, after searching for her missing brother for years, might be in no mood to hear anyone speak ill of him. Or maybe Poe struck a nerve with Leia talking about her murderous son Ben/Kylo Ren. Leia, after all, had wanted her wayward son brought home.
There's one photograph taken by Annie Leibovitz that shows Fisher, Mark Hamill, director Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy together. Were Fisher and Hamill, who were also photographed together separate from the filmmakers, shooting scenes together? Or were they just united for the Vanity Fair photo shoot? Dramatically, it would stand to reason that the events of The Last Jedi would reunite the long-separated twins.
How many scenes they would have together, though, remains to be seen. Fisher's Leia and Harrison Ford's Han Solo only had a handful of scenes together in The Force Awakens; will that be the case with Luke and Leia in The Last Jedi?
As we've known for awhile now, Luke has been secluded for years on the planet of Ahch-To, the home of the first Jedi temple. The Vanity Fair article revealed that there are beehive-shaped huts there that "belong to a race of non-Jedi caretaker inhabitants," or, as Rian Johnson described them, “not Ewoks." These huts are inspired by those lived in by the monks who once inhabited the Irish island of Skellig Michael where the Ahch-To sequences were filmed.
Recent rumors pegged these creatures as puffin-like avians known as convorees that were previously seen in Star Wars Rebels, who reportedly serve as "protectors of Ahch-To." The convorees are believed to be connected to the Force, perhaps serving as messengers, avatars or observers of some kind as Rebels executive producer and co-creator Dave Filoni hinted to us in a 2016 interview. Are the convorees also possibly connected to the Whills? We're pretty sure that's the Journal of the Whills housed in a cave on Ahch-To as seen in the first trailer.
“I feel like almost everyone is in that rehabilitation state," Adam Driver said of the characters in The :Last Jedi, his own, Kylo Ren, included. While Finn is still recovering from injuries he received battling Kylo at the end of Force Awakens, Driver said the man previously known as Ben Solo struggles with wounds that are psychological as much as physical.
Kylo, who was left with a facial scar after his lightsaber duel with Rey, is dealing with the aftermath of slaying his father, Han Solo. "You know, I don’t think that patricide is all that it’s cracked up to be. Maybe that’s where Kylo Ren is starting from. His external scar is probably as much an internal one." Might Kylo's ongoing struggle with the Light and the Dark Side, especially after he killed Han, push him onto the path to redemption? It's worth noting that the grandfather he so admires, Darth Vader, ultimately atoned for his dastardly deeds. Perhaps his grandson has it in him to change his ways, too.
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