SUPER 8
ALL THE KEY NEED-TO-KNOW INFO FOR THE LAST JEDI
The Last Jedi picks up exactly where The Force Awakens left off, with Rey and Luke on ahch-to. other residents of ahch-to include the puffin-like Porgs, and the caretakers – a race of female nun-like creatures who “tolerate” luke’s presence. other planets confirmed to appear in the movie are the new worlds of Cantonica and Crait. cantonica is home to canto bight, a las vegas-ish casino city that writer/director rian johnson describes as “a playground for rich assholes”. Crait is a remote, uninhabited (aside from crystalline fox-like creatures) world that was home to a Rebel outpost during the time of the empire. In The Last Jedi, the Resistance will have a base there. (It’s the world with the red dust you’ve seen in the trailers, where the Resistance will face off against the first order’s at-ats and their bigger, gorilla like cousins the at-m6s.) rian johnson says of the scenes between rey and luke, “there’s a training element to it, but not exactly what you’d expect.” (this seems to tally with luke’s comments in the new trailer about being scared of someone’s power – but is he talking about rey or kylo ren?) finn, critically injured in The Force Awakens, starts the movie in a healing bacta suit. Poe dameron has a new souped up X-wing fighter with an extra booster. there’s a scene where Leia slaps Poe. we’ll see supreme leader snoke in the flesh, presumably completing kylo ren’s training. (He sees Han and leia’s lad as the perfect balance between light and dark sides of the force.) snoke’s protected by an elite team of Praetorian Guards. johnson says “we’ll learn exactly as much about snoke as we need to,” pointing out that, “we didn’t know anything about the emperor except what luke knew about him.”
Captain Phasma will return with a much more significant role, having escaped starkiller Base – since we last saw her, she’s witnessed Kylo Ren’s duel with Rey, and hunted down an Imperial officer who knows she aided han solo, finn and Chewbacca on starkiller Base. It’s also been confirmed that, under the helmet, she’s a human female. major new characters include resistance technician rose tico (kelly marie tran – see opposite), and purple-haired resistance bigwig vice-admiral amilyn Holdo (laura dern). the third significant newbie is Benicio Del toro’s DJ, a morally flexible character of no obvious allegiance who helps finn and Rose during their mission to Canto Bight. he’s a “slicer” (computer hacker) who finn actor John Boyega describes as the “best codebreaker in the galaxy”. there’s a new, black-liveried bb droid known as bb-9e – the anti-bb-8. Richard Edwards