A Truckload Of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ News

Oh happy day! EW has unloaded a metric ton of Star Wars: The Last Jedi upon the hungry masses, in the lead up to the film’s December release. Continue reading to get the latest intel on Luke and Rey, Carrie Fisher‘s last turn as Princess Leia, who Benicio Del Toro is playing, and more!


Luke Skywalker Isn’t One For The Warm And Fuzzies
Although Rey has had a pretty dream run of late, taken under the wing of Han, and welcomed into the Resistance with wholeheartedly, Luke (Mark Hamill) doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for a warm welcome on the planet Ahch-To. This isn’t the Skywalker that we know and love, Luke is now a broken man, and rather than explaining things, Rey is met with a warning.
Daisy Ridley describes how Rey is inherently hopeful, and Luke kind of detonates that hope initially:

“She’s so hopeful to everything. And obviously, there’s a hint of, ‘What the hell?” “This other man [Han Solo] that I lost within a couple days was somewhat of a father figure. Now he’s gone, and instead, I’m with this grumpy guy on an island who doesn’t want me here.”

Luke may be grumpy because he thought Kylo Ren was the chosen one, and Jedi will dive headlong into that and Rey’s parentage. Director Rian Johnson says:

“The big thematic push and pull in the movie is the past and what role the past has in moving us forward into the future”


Bight Lights, Casino City

We’ve heard about Canto Bight before, a city in the vein of Monaco, Vegas, or Macau, where the universe’s richest go to spend money and forget about that pesky war. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo explains:

“What we’re going to see in The Last Jedi are some people who have managed to carve out a life for themselves where they can live apart from the galactic struggle. They found a way to live above it or beyond it. There’s a class of wealthy that have helped build all sorts of loopholes in society that will always ensure that they’ll survive or even thrive no matter what else is happening out there.”

Now we get our first look at this casino city, and now known to be located on the planet Cantonica. If you look on the platforms, those little vehicles are the police speeders that patrol Canto Bight. They carry armoured officers who keep the rich citizens safe inside the giant casino.starwars-lastjedi-cantobight-outside


A New Dynamic Duo

The casino will finally have to confront the conflict they try so hard to avoid in The Last Jedi, as Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) show up there to do… something that hasn’t been revealed. Whatever it is, it involves Benicio del Toro’s “DJ” (not his real name – see further down), although it’s not clear whether he’s helping on the mission, or is the mission. Is he good or bad? We’ll have to wait and see.star-wars-the-last-jedi-finn-and-roseAs we saw in the sizzle reel that was released, some shit definitely goes down at Canto Bight, likely because Finn and Rose are on some kind of mission there. Another shot from the sizzle reel featured what looked like General Hux arriving at a casino, so all bets are that he has something to do with it. The relationship that Rose and Finn have will likely be an interesting one because she looks up to Finn as a hero for turning against the First Order, so when the truth comes out that could all blow up in Finn’s face.

It also seems like Finn doesn’t need a pilot to fly for him anymore, as we see him in control of a ship. You can see the red dust being blown up around him, so it must mean he’s on the new planet Crait that we’ve glimpsed previously. Exactly why he’s there is unconfimed.starwars-lastjedi-finn-piloting


Meet The Porgs

We saw the Porgs in the sizzle reel from D23, but here’s the first official shot of them from the movie. It looks like Chewbacca strikes up a bond with one of these weird penguin/mole things, since it’s sitting beside him in the Millennium Falcon cockpit. Porgs aren’t the only new creatures on Ach-To though.starwars-lastjedi-chewbacca-lastjedi

There are also creatures known as The Caretakers. They’re an all female race of fish/bird aliens that speak through “a blubbery sort of Scottish fish talk.” They’ve been on the planet for millennia, and they tolerate Luke’s presence there, but they don’t like it much.The-Caretakers-TLJ


Snoke Has Some Sleek New Guards

It appears Supreme Leader Snoke has some sleek new guards to keep him safe. They’re called Praetorian guards, and they’ve clearly got a red ninja vibe, and presumably a level up from the run of the mill Stroomtrooper (maybe these guys can even hit their target!).starwars-thelastjedi-praetorianguards


DJ’s Got The Skillz

The mysterious character that Benicio Del Toro is playing, known colloquially as DJ by the producers, has been an unknown quantity up until now, but no longer. Here’s his official description from Lucasfilm:

“DJ is an enigmatic figure whose tattered, threadbare clothes and lackadaisical attitude conceal a sharp mind and expert skills.”

It sounds like DJ might be the most opportunistic character we’ve seen yet from the Star Wars universe, a character trait that’s confirmed by Boyega, who’s Finn crosses paths with him on Canto Bight:

“We just need a codebreaker and he’s the best in the galaxy. Unfortunately, he’s very dodgy and only in it for financial gain. He doesn’t fight for any side,” Boyega says.

Tran’s experiences echoes that shifty perception del Toro brought to the role:

“When I was on set with that character, I felt like there was a tiger in the room, and I always had to be watching,” she says. “Like an animal, at any moment he could do something, and I didn’t know what.”


Leia’s Last Battle

We’re all aware by now that The Last Jedi will be Carrie Fisher’s swan song as Princess, now General, Leia and by all accounts, the masses will be moved by what’s in store from the iconic actress. Rian Johnsonsays that Leia’s character

“to some degree or another has been defined by loss through this whole saga, starting with the loss of her home planet. She’s just taken hit after hit, and she’s borne it, and she focuses on moving forward and the task at hand.”

What’s revealed in EW’s coverage is the new dynamic that forms between Leia and Oscar Issac‘s Poe Dameron:

“Poe is in some ways a surrogate son for Leia,” Isaac says. “But also I think she sees in him the potential for a truly great leader of the Resistance and beyond. Poe’s arc is one of evolving from a heroic soldier to a seasoned leader, to see beyond the single-mindedness of winning the battle to the larger picture of the future of the galaxy,” Isaac says. “I think Leia knows she won’t be around forever and she, with tough love, wants to push Poe to be more than the badass pilot, to temper his heroic impulses with wisdom and clarity.”

It seems like Leia is trying to correct the mistakes that Han Solo made to a degree, and atone for the way her own son turned out. As to how the book closes on Leia’s story, we’ll just have to wait until December. Bring your tissues.
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