Lucasfilm proudly presents the next episode of its iconic Star Wars space saga Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Transcription

1 Lucasfilm proudly presents the next episode of its iconic Star Wars space saga Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which picks up the story immediately after the end of the seventh episode, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was welcomed by fans and critics alike with an excitement that s rarely been seen since the first Star Wars movie was released four decades prior. Audiences embraced the movie s new team of heroes and villains, and welcomed back some old friends, reinforcing the idea that Star Wars remains a farreaching cultural influence, appealing to people regardless of age, culture or gender. Breaking box office records and garnering rave reviews, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also nominated for five Academy Awards, won the BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects and left audiences clamoring for the next installment. In Lucasfilm s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. The film stars Mark Hamill (Star Wars original trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars original trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Adam Driver ( Logan Lucky, Silence ), Daisy Ridley ( Murder on the Orient Express, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), John Boyega ( Detroit, The Circle ), Oscar Isaac ( The Promise, X-Men: Apocalypse ), Lupita Nyong o ( The Queen of Katwe, 12 Years a Slave ), Andy Serkis ( War for the Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Domhnall Gleeson ( Goodbye Christopher Robin, Mother! ), Anthony Daniels (Star Wars trilogies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Gwendoline Christie ( Game of Thrones, Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Kelly Marie Tran ( XOXO, Adam Ruins Everything ), Laura Dern ( Wilson, Wild ) and Benicio Del Toro ( Sicario, Traffic ).

2 Star Wars: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman. J.J. Abrams, Tom Karnowski and Jason McGatlin are the executive producers. The producers and Johnson assembled an outstanding team of filmmakers to help bring The Last Jedi to the screen, including director of photography Steve Yedlin ( Looper, San Andreas ); production designer Rick Heinrichs ( Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man s Chest, Sleepy Hollow ); editor Bob Ducsay ( Godzilla, Looper ); costume designer Michael Kaplan ( Star Trek, Winter s Tale ); with special creature effects by Neal Scanlan (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Babe ) and music by John Williams (Star Wars, Jurassic Park ). Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in U.S. theaters on December 15, THE WRITER/DIRECTOR The exciting task of continuing the Skywalker saga fell to writer/director Rian Johnson. Johnson had already shown a real knack for complex sci-fi storytelling in his timebending, critically acclaimed Looper, but what made him the right director to succeed J.J. Abrams in the director s chair? President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy explains: He has a remarkable uniqueness to what he does. He writes as beautifully as he directs, and he writes amazingly fierce and independent women. He s also got a great sense of humor, and that s so important to Star Wars. Rian s quirkiness is so interesting, expands Kennedy, and that s what he has very specifically brought to the storytelling. We are working really hard to make sure that each of these movies reflects some aspect of the filmmaker who they are and what their contribution is to the story. Rian observes human behavior really well. He s got a very good heart and a real soul to what he does. Johnson admits that he had to take some time to think about coming on to write and direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was a big decision, actually, Johnson says. On one hand, it was something that I felt was a dream offer. On the other hand, it was a big, life-changing deal. I wanted to make sure it was something that was going to be a good experience, and it really has been. His ultimate choice was the start of a thrilling adventure. Like many folks my age, Star Wars is imbedded in my psyche, Johnson says. Some of my earliest memories of creative play, of telling my own stories, were with Star Wars toys and in that universe. So I think I was anticipating much more fear and trepidation at the weight of actually working on a real Star Wars film. Of course there was pressure and there were nerves and fear, but maybe because of that primal connection to the world, the overriding emotion of the process was happiness. I had the time of my life making this movie. In many ways it felt the closest I ve ever gotten to a professional equivalent of that freewheeling play, being a kid and running around the room with action figures. [2]

3 The Last Jedi is the biggest film Johnson has done in terms of size and scope, but he approached the project with the attitude that the only way to tackle it was to just jump into it and start doing it. He explains, If I had let myself zoom back and look at the enormity of the task, and the responsibility of it, I would have just been paralyzed and spent the last few years curled up in the fetal position. I looked at where The Force Awakens left off, and I wrote down the names of each one of the characters, and I started writing and asking myself what I knew about each of these characters. What do I think they want? Where can I see them going? And what would be the hardest thing for each of them to come up against? And once I got to a place where I had something for each one of them that made sense, I started drawing it out into a story. So it s kind of like eating an elephant. You just do it one bite at a time. Realizing that his focus did not have to be on the epic nature of the film, Johnson says, I knew that the bigness and the epic sense and all of that would sort itself out. I knew that would just naturally happen, because once we started playing with these toys we came up with cool battles and cool stuff. What I needed to really work about it were the characters and the story. That was really the starting point of the whole thing. He adds, Because it s the middle chapter of a trilogy, this is the one where we have to slow down a little and dig into everybody a little bit more. That s really where I put most of the focus. Johnson s longtime producing partner, producer Ram Bergman, offers, For Rian it was always about the characters, and he started from there. He was able to come up with a story that was powerful and emotional and goes in an unexpected way. The story is what is true for the characters; it takes them on a journey that feels real. The presence of strong females in The Last Jedi appealed to Johnson s sensibilities. He relates, One of the first things that Kathy told me when she asked me if I d be interested in doing this was that the lead character was a girl named Rey. I was instantly into that; it just felt right. Leia was the first female figure that girls and women could look up to, and seeing how much it meant to them, Carrie Fisher was very conscious of that and held that with her. She felt a responsibility to make Leia great. Continuing, he says, Now, in addition to Leia and Rey, we have the new characters of Rose and Admiral Holdo. In this movie there are a lot of really interesting strong and powerful and weak and conflicted and good and bad female characters. I got to work with a lot of amazing actresses, like Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. There are a lot of kick-ass women in this movie, which is pretty great. The relationship between Rey and Luke Skywalker was an element of the story that Johnson had to work out as writer. Rey has her expectation of Luke when she shows up at the island, says Johnson. But the first thing I had to really figure out was what Luke s deal is. Why is he on that island? Because I know he s not a coward and I know he s not hiding. I know if he s there, he s taken himself out of the fight, and he must have a reason for doing that. What is that reason? [3]

4 And I worked and worked and thought and thought until finally I got to something where I could put myself in his shoes. That s kind of cryptic, I guess, but it allowed me to understand Luke in this movie. I understand where he is and I understand how he got there through the events. Now, let s see what happens when Rey comes into his life and messes everything up basically by showing up on his doorstep with a lightsaber, Johnson concludes. THE CAST That time has come, and audiences will delight in seeing the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as General Leia, Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Oscar Isaac as Poe, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and with Joonas Suotamo, now playing Chewbacca. The Last Jedi also introduces three main new characters: Rose, a Resistance maintenance worker played by Kelly Marie Tran; a shady character of dubious loyalties played by Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro; and a prominent Resistance officer, Vice Admiral Holdo, played by two-time Academy Award nominee Laura Dern. Rounding out the saga s ensemble cast is Golden Globe nominee Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke; Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong o as Maz; Tony Award nominee Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux; and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. Let s take a more in-depth look at the actors and the characters they play in The Last Jedi. LUKE SKYWALKER Mark Hamill After tragedy destroyed his attempt to rebuild the Jedi Knights, Luke Skywalker vanished from the galaxy and lived a humble existence on the planet Ahch-To. Now, the Resistance needs the reclusive hero to help thwart the efforts of the evil First Order. For fan icon Mark Hamill, who started playing Luke Skywalker in 1977, returning to the Millennium Falcon set on Star Wars: The Last Jedi was bittersweet. Everywhere you looked, these memories come flooding back, Hamill says. It s like going to your old high school or the house you lived in in sixth grade. The detail s absolutely perfect. It s just as I remember it. I climbed up and down the ladder, got in the hold where we stowed away, and sat in the cockpit with my grown children and wife. Later I slipped away and got really choked up. This is a moment, and it ll be gone. Informing where we find Luke at the beginning of the story, Hamill says, It s a direct continuation of The Force Awakens, so the final moment is the first time you see him [4]

5 in The Last Jedi. It s very ambiguous. Rey offers him the lightsaber, and he just stares at her. Luke and Rey s meeting portends some serious events for them, but first they have to get past their first impressions. Rey has based her assessment of Luke on this great mythology that s been built up, says Hamill. At some point, people doubt he s a real person. Because of the gravity of the situation, the urgency of the situation, she doesn t have the luxury of getting to know him and relax and exchange ideas. She needs him and wants to enlist his help and abilities towards her cause. And that s the conflict. Luke s in a much different place than we ve ever seen him before. Continuing, he adds, He s disillusioned. He s renounced the idea of the Jedi Order. Luke always represented hope and optimism. And now, here he is pessimistic, disillusioned and demoralized. Working with director Rian Johnson proved to be a positive experience for Hamill, who says, I trust him. There s no one more deserving of trust than Rian Johnson. If you look at his movies, each is different than the last. You can t pigeonhole him and say, That s the kind of film he makes. That s what will happen with The Last Jedi. It s so different in many ways, subtle ways, than the other Episodes, and yet it is satisfying in delivering what the fans want to see as well. GENERAL LEIA ORGANA Carrie Fisher On the run from dark forces determined to crush freedom in the galaxy, Leia Organa leads the dwindling Resistance fleet. A living legend, General Leia draws upon her decades of experience to fight against the First Order. Production had wrapped a few months prior to Carrie Fisher s tragic and untimely death in December 2016, which makes Leia s story in The Last Jedi all the more poignant. Still leading the Resistance, Leia, the general and rebel princess, has been central to the Star Wars universe from the get-go. Says Ram Bergman: Carrie had a meaningful role in the film even before her untimely death, but now there will be so much more weight to some very emotional scenes. She challenged Rian every day, but they had a great partnership. Everyone will be so proud of her performance. Interviewed during production, Fisher said that she found her character in a different state this time around. Leia s exhausted. She goes from being someone who s shooting guns and swinging across chasms to killing Jabba the Hutt, to being serious, worrying a lot. She has a lot more responsibility and there s a lot more reason for her to be exhausted. But getting to see Mark Hamill again as Luke Skywalker was a highlight for Fisher (and Leia). I always think of him as Luke, said Fisher. Mark and I have a very sibling-like relationship. Our relationships in the movie are very much like our relationships in life. [5]

6 We take care of each other, in a way. In the movie, Leia develops an interesting relationship with Poe, played by Oscar Isaac. Poe is Leia s protégé, and in a way she thinks of him as Han, which is both the good news and the bad news, explained Fisher. He s dominating and he doesn t listen to her. She s trying to train him. We have some moments together. When asked what Star Wars means to her, Fisher offered, For me, it s about family. That s what is so powerful about it. I go to Comic-Con and meet a lot of these people and it s very powerful for them. They re showing the films to their children and their grandchildren. They re sharing something that moved them as a child. That s personal. I ve watched a lot of that over the years, like people coming in with babies that have the Princess Leia outfit on. That s the thing that makes it so powerful for a lot of people. It s an identifying universe and something that creates a community. Anything that does that can heal people. You can have that thing in common and find others. I don t know that it saves lives, but I know it improves them. KYLO REN Adam Driver After a stinging defeat by the scavenger Rey, Kylo Ren refocuses his sinister efforts on destroying the Resistance. But even though he is growing more powerful in the dark side of the Force, Kylo Ren still has much to prove to his shadowy mentor, Supreme Leader Snoke. For Adam Driver, his return to play Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi delivered an unexpected fan moment. As he explains, There are times in the shooting of it that as much as you try to deny that you re making a Star Wars movie, it inevitably seeps in. You see a TIE fighter, and it s hard to ignore that it s a TIE fighter. The biggest moment for me when I realized I was doing a Star Wars movie, even though we already did one, was Mark Hamill. It was just surreal to see him. For me, on the outside, growing up with those movies, it s not lost on me how unique it is because I ve attached so much meaning to those movies that have nothing to do with him. But to suddenly be in a film with him was very surreal. He is just cool. There s not a more elegant way to say it. Driver was impressed with how writer/director Rian Johnson developed Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. How Rian moved the story along for my character, I thought, was really unexpected, Driver says. That s very generic, but that s the truth. The fact that Kylo Ren kills his father at the end of The Force Awakens was not a psychology that Rian skipped over in the sense of how that affects someone. And in a way, it grounded it more in reality. You can t deny that the event happened, so he didn t skip over it and actually made the circumstances of it real. For me, that was helpful. Offering some insight into Kylo Ren s nature, Driver says, Kylo Ren is someone who s becoming more entrenched in his ideas, almost to a religious fervor, and is so certain that he s doing the right thing. Something about the youthfulness of him was not lost [6]

7 in Rian s writing. He adds, I don t know that he ever comes to terms with the relationship of the light and dark within him. I think it s still always an internal battle. That s the thing that Rian understands in his characters that people are never all one thing, even though we d like them to be. There s a lot of grey in the world and especially within ourselves. That s an interesting thing that I find fun about playing that character. He s never all one thing. As to Kylo Ren s relationship with Rey in The Last Jedi, Driver comments, In all the epic drama that s going on, at the center of it are these two people who are on opposite sides but divided by something that s a very thin line the dark and light that exists in both of them. They re not far off from each other, and in a way they re together in this journey, where maybe they both feel alone. They re almost each other s opposite in a great way. Johnson admits that Kylo Ren was the character that he was the most excited about getting into and writing. He continues, In the first Star Wars films, Darth Vader was a great villain, but he was never someone that you identified with. You identified with Luke s relationship to him. So Vader was the monster. He was the scary father, and then he was the father you had to reconcile with. Whereas with Kylo, it s almost like Rey and Kylo are two halves of the protagonist. Rey is the light, and Kylo is the dark. And with Kylo, again, this is all about the transition from adolescence into adulthood. Kylo is that anger of adolescence, and wanting to reject your parents, and wanting to break away, which, to some extent, all of us can identify with as much as we can identify with the hopeful Rey looking up at the stars from her planet. Johnson adds, Adam is one of my favorite young actors, and working through cracking open such an enigmatic and intense character with Adam was incredibly rewarding. His choices on screen always feel honest but always surprise you. REY Daisy Ridley With the power of the Force awakening inside her, Rey travels to the hidden world of Ahch-To to find Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi Master in the galaxy and the last hope of the Resistance. Hoping to find the hero of legend, Rey discovers instead a man who challenges her expectations. Star Wars: The Force Awakens introduced audiences to a new central hero Rey, a young woman from the remote desert island planet Jakku. The Force Awakens allowed audiences to experience the hero s journey through a fresh set of eyes, bringing a new perspective. For Johnson, Rey s motivations were another aspect of getting the story right. Rey, at the end of The Force Awakens, has been thrown into this big adventure and been [7]

8 sent on a mission to find Luke, reminds Johnson. She has a desire for connection to her past and some notion that there are answers there that she can get. I think she probably expects there are some answers about who she is, and that s really what she is on a quest to find out. Not just meaning who her parents are or where she comes from, but meaning what s her place in all of this? When she shows up on that island, there s part of her, and there s a big part of us, that expects that she s going to get that information from Luke. And how does that meeting with Luke affect Rey? I think she s learning not to believe the hype, offers Ridley. Even on Jakku, in the backend of nowhere in space, she s heard stories about Luke. And he makes her realize it s not all as rosy as it seems to be. Good people make bad choices, and bad people can make good choices. She s learning her own strengths and weaknesses and continuing to learn about the human psyche, because she hasn t really had relationships with people before. Ridley continues, Rey doesn t see herself as this powerful being, and seeing Luke is a reflection of what people see her as. They talk about her potential, and she doesn t really feel it. But she does start to come around. She tries to move forward and do the right thing, like she has always done. Working with both Mark Hamill and Adam Driver on The Last Jedi was great, according to Ridley. They re both very different, elaborates the actress. Mark s a talker and Adam isn t. Mark has lived a crazy life. A lot of his life has been influenced by Star Wars, and he s so well-known for it. He s older; he s a father, so his energy is steadier. Adam is incredible. He has this amazing depth of emotion. I don t know anyone else like him. He s amazing to work with. He s very generous. Describing how it feels to be playing a heroic woman on screen, Ridley says, I like that I never questioned being a heroic woman in a film, and that s thanks to my upbringing. My mom s always worked; the women I grew up around always worked and were inspirational. So it s weird because the way people reacted made me question more than I did. It s a great role but not just because she s a woman. That s how simple it was to me. But others were like, This is a big deal, clearly. But it s exciting to be a part of that. And I m like, let s continue. This is how it should be. Daisy is an extraordinary young actor, remarks Johnson. She brought a depth and emotion to the character that I could not have imagined. I discovered that so much that people respond to in the character of Rey comes from Daisy: her tenacity, her bravery, her humor, her depth, so many things that make little kids want to be Rey, those things are Daisy. Summing up, Ridley offers, Rian has written a story that people won t expect. Everybody gets their moment to progress. And even though it s the second episode in this series, it s its own thing without just leading onto the next one, which is great. Some of the stuff that happens will surprise people. [8]

9 FINN John Boyega Finn commits himself to the cause of fighting his former allies in the First Order, and with the Resistance readying a daring stand against their First Order pursuers, Finn prepares to do his part in the battle for freedom. Finn s defining act in The Force Awakens was leaving the First Order, and he was with the good guys for the rest of the story, but the truth is he never joined the Resistance. Says Johnson, Finn is motivated by personal emotion, not by ideological causes. His bravery in The Force Awakens is to save his friend, not because he cares about her cause or Poe s army. In this film we re going to dig deeper in and see what he really believes in when the rubber meets the road. Offering more insight as to where we find his character emotionally now, Boyega says, Finn has evolved from The Force Awakens. He s more aware about his part in this story. He s more affected by the events that happened before and brings that same energy and struggle into The Last Jedi. But at the same time, he s still confused as to where he belongs. Although he s now matured, more of a fighter, there are still some loose ends in terms of his character development. In The Last Jedi, Finn develops a new relationship with a character named Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran. Describing the relationship, Boyega says, It is a relationship that is different from Finn and Rey. It s something he doesn t have time to consider, in terms of both of them, just two different people. But it is the same kind of bond we saw in The Force Awakens when two people who don t necessarily have a decision when it comes to being together and being on the fight together are put together by fate. Finn and Rose make a really good team. For Boyega, working with writer/director Rian Johnson was a positive experience. Rian s really great, relates the actor. He is really talented. To see another director s take on a story doesn t distract from what Star Wars is. At the same time, we have Rian s take on character, which stands out to me more than anything else. The individual stories of these characters are elevated and made fresh and new. Rian pays attention to detail. His notes are specific and honest. And at the same time, he has a sense of collaboration. I feel the best directors know how to collaborate, and he does just that. About Boyega, Johnson says: John s charisma sparks off the screen, but he came to Finn in this movie with some real solidity and strength, and a bit of swagger in his step. He finds an emerging strength in Finn that I loved watching develop. [9]

10 POE DAMERON Oscar Isaac Now that the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance has escalated into open warfare, Poe shines as a daring squadron leader. He is decidedly brave, but his hotshot antics wear the patience of not only the enemy but the Resistance commands as well. According to Isaac, The Last Jedi is covering some new ground that relates to his character, Poe Dameron. It s exploring certain thematic things that haven t been seen before about what it means to resist and what it means to win, says the actor. There are some very truthful messages about power and the nature of power and those seeking power and how easily it can go one way or another. He adds, It s finding out what a hero is. What it is to be a hero and what it is to be a leader. You get more specific and find the nuance in the situation, and how you can explore those themes. It s a war. They re in the midst of a war; it is life and death, and the decisions made affect so many. Especially on Poe s side, which is focused on the Resistance. Offering some insight into Poe and where we find him in this film, Isaac says, In The Force Awakens, we get to meet Poe briefly. He s a man on a mission, a man of action, and he s committed to this thing he has to do: He has to find Luke Skywalker. We get briefly introduced to him, and he meets Finn, and they spark. But that s all you get from him, except that he has a smart mouth. That continues in this film, but there s a lot more conflict. He finds himself in a more precarious situation. He s a man of action; he wants to help, to save the Resistance, to fight the First Order. But his old heroics aren t necessarily what they need in this moment. Describing how Poe changes and develops over the course of the story, Isaac says, Poe is learning to not just be a soldier but to be a leader. Not just be the heroic pilot but perhaps learn to be a general. And that s a shift. He s a man on a mission. You give him a mission, and he ll complete it. But seeing the bigger picture, knowing when not to engage, that s what he has to learn. Isaac offers an interesting analogy when it comes to his experience working with writer/director Rian Johnson. Working with Rian reminds me of a West Coast jazz musician, giving a little direction here and there, comments Isaac. He s very laid back, but very sharp. He knows his scale. He knows what he s playing. And he s open. He s open to trying things. He s willing to explore scenes with me, and often we end up going back to what the script says, but at least we get to explore. Says Johnson: Oscar is like a reincarnation of my favorite old movie stars; he has that old school magnetism paired with insane acting chops. Poe is a straight-up, good-guy hero, and although he gets put through the wringer in this film, because of Oscar you never lose faith that he s going to come out the other end all the better for it. [10]

11 MAZ KANATA Lupita Nyong o The destruction of her castle has forced Maz to become more mobile and take a more hands-on role in the turbulent criminal underworld. Using everything at her disposal, Maz offers assistance in the struggle against the First Order. Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong o returns to the Star Wars family as Maz Kanata, the motion-capture character she first brought to life in The Force Awakens. SUPREME LEADER SNOKE Andy Serkis The shadowy commander of the First Order, Supreme Leader Snoke emerges from the shadows in an attempt to seize victory. The talented, versatile Andy Serkis returns to the role of the über-controlling villain Supreme Leader Snoke. In a move that is sure to delight fans, Snoke is no longer a hologram and reveals himself, offering a good look at his throne room as well. GENERAL ARMITAGE HUX Domhnall Gleeson Though the Starkiller Base has been destroyed, Hux s command to fire a devastating weapon has eradicated the New Republic in a single strike. From the bridge of the Finalizer, Hux commands the pursuit of the Resistance. Domhnall Gleeson is back, reprising his role of the villainous General Hux. For Gleeson, playing a villain has its rewards. It s fun to play a villain. It s a bit different for me. It s not something I ve done before. Hux is pretty unapologetic about wanting what he wants. You don t see him with his dog in the evenings, relaxing, having a smoke. He s pretty full on, but that s part of his charm. When asked if Hux is an uptight character, Gleeson responds, You say uptight, I say ordered. I think it depends on your perspective. My feeling generally is that individuality scares him. The First Order is about crushing that. It s called the First Order for a reason. It s about keeping things in the right place. So I think that s his perspective. That s what he strives for because anything different freaks him out. Offering insight on where Hux stands in the First Order hierarchy, Gleeson says, Hux occupies a strange territory in that he s not in between Snoke and Kylo Ren. It s more Snoke, then Ren and Hux underneath, operating different arms of the body of the First Order. They have very different powers. They re good at different things. There s wildness about Ren that you see in the first one when he loses it, which Hux doesn t [11]

12 have. Hux is more disciplined. I think Hux has his eye on the throne, and Ren is a challenge to that. I think he s scared of Ren and hates Ren but respects him in a strange way because he s powerful. All of that is in the mix. Power is all Hux really cares about. C-3PO Anthony Daniels The threat of the First Order is of great concern to the ever-worried protocol droid C- 3PO, but he faithfully and loyally continues to serve General Leia Organa. The fan-favorite C-3PO has always had his place in the world of Star Wars. Though not often listened to with any seriousness, C-3PO is a voice of reason. According to Anthony Daniels, who once again brings the gold droid back to life, He s there as a little foil to all the drama that happens. Also to be a voice of humanity, which strangely enough coming out of a metal character, speaks louder than if a human character in the film said it. For Daniels, suiting up as C-3PO is a given, since the actor has been in every Star Wars movie since the inception of the saga, but what he takes away from it is a gift. The force of the weight of the adoration, the liking, the love of the fans really makes it a worthwhile job, says the actor. It makes me feel good when people come up and say, Thank you for my childhood. That I m a part of something they experienced as a kid and it s stayed with them for whatever reason. Nothing to do with me, mostly to do with George s bedrock story. But I now get that phrase: Thank you for my childhood. It s something people carry with them now, forever. And now it s being passed on. Three generations get it. CAPTAIN PHASMA Gwendoline Christie Clad in her distinctive metallic armor, Captain Phasma commands the First Order s legions of troopers. Having survived the destruction of Starkiller Base, she has a personal score to settle with the Resistance. Gwendoline Christie reprises her role of Captain Phasma, the cold-as-ice First Order officer who is Star Wars first major female villain. In approaching the role, Christie states that she is most interested in who Captain Phasma truly is and why she behaves the way she does. I talked to Rian a lot and thought a lot about what sort of person would be driven to behave in this way, the actress comments. To have such focus. Such vengeance. Such lack of emotion to behave in such a rigid, driven, focused manner. To be so governed by a practical sense of what she believes is right. And where this cold hatred of Finn comes from. Hate is a strong emotion. It s not like dislike or irritation. It s incredibly strong and incredibly rooted. We thought perhaps this woman behaves in this way, and it tends to be born [12]

13 out of fear. She adds, We see more of Captain Phasma, but we still maintain the mystery. I think it s exciting to keep that sense of mystery. We re still divining who she is and what motivates her. Relating how the story and characters have developed in The Last Jedi, Christie says, I feel like the story has moved on. It does reveal more about our human nature. It has a reflection of the world around us in a moral and political sense. But it isn t at all heavy-handed. It s beautiful and magical. It feels richer. The stories are more established. We know more about these new characters. We re now invested in them, watching them grow as their lives change and expand. And with the characters we know and love, they continue to develop, and we learn lessons from the lives they lead and the sacrifices they make. ROSE TICO Kelly Marie Tran Part of the support crew that keeps the Resistance starfighters flying, Rose has hated the First Order since she was a child. Now able to fight back against the enemy, Rose keeps her focus on her mission. When Kelly Marie Tran landed the role of Rose Tico on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, keeping the secret of her role was difficult, especially when she was bursting with excitement. I found out that I got the role in November of 2015, says Tran. I moved to London immediately after that, in December, and couldn t tell anybody where I was going or what I was actually doing until February So I told everyone that I was in Canada working on an indie movie and just lied to everybody I knew. Says Johnson of his choice to play Rose, Although each of the characters in Star Wars reflect some part of how we all feel, or at least how we d like to feel, for me Rose is the closest to how 10-year-old me would have felt if he woke up in this universe. She doesn t belong here, but she s going to be brave and do her best. Luckily we found the perfect embodiment of that spirit with Kelly Marie Tran. I love her to death, and I m thrilled to introduce audiences to both Rose and Kelly. Describing her character, Tran offers, Rose is a member of the Resistance, and she has an older sister who s also in the Resistance and is so cool. She s a gunner, and she s essentially what most people would think of as a hero. But Rose is the opposite of that. She works in maintenance, and she s a nobody. Her sister s always been the cool one that s been out there in the forefront of the action. Rose has always been the one behind pipes, fixing things. Continuing, she adds, Then something happens in the beginning of the movie that pulls Rose into the journey. She meets Finn and he is a big deal to her. It s like meeting a childhood hero. Rose has always been someone who has been on the bottom of the [13]

14 food chain in the Resistance. And here is Finn, someone who, for her, represents why she s there. So they meet and go on a series of crazy adventures together. Tran s character adds another heroine to Star Wars cadre of strong females. Explaining how she feels about joining their ranks, the actress says, It feels like two different things. It feels so exciting that I get to be this person that I hope people look up to. And on the other side, it feels like a lot of responsibility. You just want to do it right. And you want to do the franchise right, because so many generations love this thing. ADMIRAL HOLDO Laura Dern The commanding officer of a Resistance cruiser, Vice Admiral Holdo has been a trusted ally of General Leia Organa for years. Holdo radiates a quiet confidence with her measured words, but will it be enough to light the encroaching darkness? Laura Dern never gave much thought to the idea that her character, Vice Admiral Holdo, would become iconic when she signed on for Star Wars: The Last Jedi until she heard someone ask how the character s hair color would work on the doll. A doll. Then you realize that you are serving something greater, as my childhood was served, says Dern. You re not only serving storytelling but iconic and archetypal characters. I think about my daughter being a 10-year-old girl and the idea that she s going to have heroines in this story who all look very different and have very different qualities and natures, and are all fierce. Describing her character, Dern says, Vice Admiral Holdo is an unbelievably delicious challenge, thanks to Rian Johnson s writing. What s really interesting is that you don t know where you stand and don t know who she is. You know she was trained by Leia and trained by the Resistance, but she is in fact mercurial, and you re not sure what you re going to get. And as the story unfolds, it gets more and more questionable. Says Johnson: I wanted to find an actor who would defy our expectations of what the qualities of leadership look like, and take us by surprise. Besides being one of the loveliest people on the planet, Laura exudes a very special sort of strength that brought all those elements together. It is clear that Dern enjoyed working with Rian Johnson. What s amazing about Rian is that on a film like Star Wars, you don t, as an actor, expect to have a process like you do with other filmmakers on independent films, comments Dern. I ve spent my life having different experiences and always have been very fortunate to work with directors who want to mine the material and find more. I think audiences will be thrilled because it s in keeping with what J.J. Abrams set up with a return back to the original three films, which are character-based stories that have simplicity to them, within all that surrounds us. [14]

15 DJ Benicio Del Toro DJ is an enigmatic figure whose tattered, threadbare clothes and lackadaisical attitude conceal a sharp mind and expert skills. There is a rich tradition of scoundrels in Star Wars, and DJ, played by Benicio Del Toro, both plays to and against our expectations of the more dubious characters in the galaxy. Like all actors joining Star Wars, there was a thrilling element to the ride he was about to embark upon. You ve been drafted by a winning team, says Del Toro, and they allow creativity to grow in front of the camera. Creating a character like this is really fun. Adds Johnson, I felt very lucky that Benicio signed on for the part. He s charming but also rides that wonderful line where you re not exactly sure if you trust him. Describing DJ as very cool, Del Toro elaborates, He s a cynic. He believes that good guys and bad guys are just basically the same. And he s a profiteer. He profits from the eternal war of good and evil. He s an opportunist but can get you out of a jam, and get you in a jam. We play that line of whether he is good or bad. We don t know. But he s a mercenary, really. Del Toro worked closely with writer/director Rian Johnson to develop the character. I had ideas and ran them by Rian, the actor explains. And Rian is a fun director that way. You can get creative with him. We did some things. We wanted to build something that was unique for this film. At the same time, DJ has to be both repulsive and attractive. So you juggle that and hope some things work better than others. But I have faith in Rian. Offering insight on the relationship between Finn (played by John Boyega) and DJ, Del Toro says, DJ s mantra is live free and don t join. So that s basically his attitude, and he tries to show Finn that even the good guys are dirty at times and perhaps corrupt as well. He s like this little devil on Finn s shoulder that basically is trying to make him see a different side or different approach to living in the galaxy. CHEWBACCA Joonas Suotamo Faithful first mate and co-pilot Chewbacca now stands by Rey s side and accompanies her on her quest to find Luke Skywalker. When Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo stepped into Peter Mayhew s shoes to play Chewbacca, he found they were very big shoes but he was up for the challenge. You must interpret it your own way, he says. But I think we ve done a good job, everyone [15]

16 involved, in making the suit the best it can be, and I m trying to do the best I can do to be true to the character s past history and bring in new things when appropriate. The former basketball player turned actor adds, I turn into a very happy person whenever I m in the costume. When everyone sees Chewie, they don t see me, they see Chewie. And that means I ve done my job inside the suit. I want to give people a glimpse of what they ve seen of Chewie before. That s my goal. THE MAKING OF STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI In undertaking one of the most ambitious set builds in cinema history, Academy Award winning production designer Rick Heinrichs was tasked with designing and creating The Last Jedi environments in which the action takes place. Construction was on a massive scale. Heinrichs was responsible for creating an extraordinary number of sets around 120 utilizing all stages and the backlots at Pinewood, as well as stages at Longcross Studios, two foreign filming locations (Dubrovnik, Croatia, and the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland), and plate shoots in Iceland and Bolivia, all to be shot over 100 days. I was told that our production built the most sets of any film that has ever shot in the U.K., Rian Johnson offers. I m not sure if that s true, but halfway through production it sure felt like it. When we wrapped a set we would have to review the dailies immediately, because the set was invariably getting torn down the next day to make room for another set. Rick Heinrichs worked logistic miracles, and watching it all put together, I think it pays off. Even the most fantastic spaces in our movie feel grounded and real, because they literally are. Johnson informs that there were many early conversations about the design of the film, and specifically about what makes something feel like Star Wars. After going around a bit, we decided to just hop in and start designing some stuff and see if it feels right, the director says. There were designers on the team who homed in on the Star Wars feel of it all instantly, so we tended to gravitate towards those artists. Kevin Jenkins, who is the lead designer with ILM, and James Klein were two of the guys who were just hugely instrumental in delivering the Star Wars elements in the design. It s an interesting balance to try and strike, designing new things and having them feel like they could be on a box from a toy in Prior to production, Heinrichs was able to immerse himself in the spectacular library of visual reference at Skywalker Ranch. It was an incredibly amazing introduction to the world, to see all the original artwork firsthand, he says. He then set about creating a huge reference library of his own to share with his team, giving them the opportunity to research and respect the original aesthetic created by George Lucas while exploring new concepts and imagining the new worlds, planets and environments envisaged by Johnson. [16]

17 This is without doubt the biggest endeavor, the largest number of sets, the most intricate construction and detail per set I have worked on, comments Heinrichs. But in spite of the huge amount of work, he loved the experience. Rian s a dream to work with. He s a writer/director, so first of all these are all ideas that come from him, and they are great ideas, both visually and narratively, and at the same time character driven. He has all that going on at the same time and is a sweet and funny guy to work with. THE SETS Familiar sets include the Millennium Falcon, the Resistance Cruiser, the Fighter Hangar and the Mine Control Center, all organic, acquired, born out of necessity and in stark contrast to the cold, angular world inhabited by the First Order, such as the Star Destroyer, the Mega Destroyer and Kylo s Chambers. Says Rick Heinrichs, We were able to extract our understanding of what the central design aesthetic was for the Rebel fleet and apply that to the Resistance, and take the central character and form of how the Empire appeared, and apply that to the First Order. It was not simply a case of making it bigger but a question of shape for the filmmakers. There are some simple descriptive form elements that Lucas used from the beginning of sharp, shiny, black and reflective for the Empire, and associations with old things like WWII bombers and a comfortable familiarity for the Resistance, Heinrichs explains. New environments and worlds created specifically for The Last Jedi include the expanded Jedi Island Ahch-To, Canto Bight, the planet Crait and Snoke s Throne Room. The Jedi Island was built across Pinewood and Longcross Studios, as well as on location on the west coast of Ireland, all needing to match seamlessly with elements shipped from one place to another as the schedule and action dictated. The island was entirely drawn from Skellig Michael, where The Force Awakens had shot the final sequences with Luke Skywalker, both in terms of its natural features and the emotional experience of the place. The Force Awakens production designer Rick Carter had found Skellig Michael, and Rian Johnson had long conversations with him about his impressions of the island. But, he explains, it wasn t until I went myself and actually walked up the stone steps that I really got it. There s a truly mystical feeling to the place, it s hard to describe. It s like you re walking around not on dirt and rocks but on a giant creature. You re aware of the environment and landscape the way you would be of a living thing. That visit informed Johnson s process thereafter. Everything was designed to be in harmony with that environment. Johnson continues, We avoided elaborate structures. I wanted everything to feel like a piece of the place itself. While the Jedi Village was to be built on a cliff top on the west coast of Ireland, practical, logistical and safety reasons made some filming impossible there, so the set, a series of beehive huts based on the Skellig Michael huts where the monks had lived, were at first constructed on the Pinewood backlot. Once the scenes had been completed there, the set was taken down, shipped and rebuilt on the Sybil Head cliff. [17]

18 The Last Jedi team reconstructed the interior of the Millennium Falcon, which had been impeccably put together for The Force Awakens by art director Mark Harris on a Pinewood stage, giving The Last Jedi filmmakers the entire exterior of the Millennium Falcon, on its Landing Pad, at the base of the Longcross Studios incline. THE CASINO So much of what defines the look and feel of the original trilogy is a worn-in grubbiness, and realizing luxury in the Star Wars universe proved to be an interesting task. Says Johnson, Finn and Rose have an adventure in Canto Bight, a Monte Carlo like city that had to dazzle and seduce us. The visual development of that world was by far the most involved design process in the movie, and Rick Heinrichs and his team worked to fuse visual cues from Star Wars into an entirely new feeling of wealth and opulence. Built on the 007 Stage at the U.K. s Pinewood Studios, the Canto Bight Casino was one of The Last Jedi s biggest sets, as well as one of the most challenging. Supervising art director Chris Lowe explains, We had to create a very large cavernous gambling space with a bar in it for the action sequence. The scale of it was driven by the sequence itself and the scale of the fathiers, the creatures specific to the scene. We used lots of mirrors to throw the scale and keep the distance going. Rick Heinrichs speaks to the inspiration and the design: We were going for an extremely extravagant, over-the-top version of Monte Carlo. We used a lot of architectural references to earlier Star Wars films, like columns and arches, but with more ovular, circular, softer shapes than what we ve seen in the other films. I had read that Ralph McQuarrie, when he was working on Jabba s Palace, realized that if he kept with rectilinear forms it would look like a black castle from some 1930s swashbuckling movie, but if you keep to soft deco shapes, there s a real opportunity to come up with something fresh, an opulent quality, which would convey the idea of fun and beauty. That s what we were aiming for. In the end, the 16-week build was so large that it had to be split across two stages at Pinewood, with the exterior built at Longcross and the medieval city of Dubrovnik standing in for the city of Canto Bight, where the Casino is situated and where the action spills out. The Casino is an excellent example of how departments work together to create something extraordinary. Hundreds of extras dressed to the impeccable nines by costume designer Michael Kaplan, and incredible creatures, created and puppeteered by Neal Scanlan and his team, converged on these huge and amazing sets built by Rick Heinrichs and rigged for action by SFX supervisor Chris Corbould and stunt coordinator Rob Inch. Acknowledges Johnson: It was a multi-department extravaganza! [18]

19 THE PLANET CRAIT Another new environment is the planet Crait, a mineral planet, and Johnson had a very specific visual idea for its look from the very start. It would be white, like a thin white layer of salt actually, but like a topsoil, says the director. And then under that would be this ruby red sort of crystal foundation. It just felt like it gave incredible possibilities in terms of graphic design for an environment that we hadn t seen before. Building Crait on a Pinewood stage and tying the landscape of the planet in with a later plate shoot on the salt flats of Bolivia, Heinrichs worked with Johnson s vision to give Crait an igneous layer of red mineral covered over by salt flakes to give it a white canvas. When the surface is disturbed, the red shows to give this great red and white design graphic, which is the character of the planet Crait. SNOKE S THRONE ROOM In The Force Awakens, audiences were introduced to Snoke as a hologram, without a sense of his environment. So in The Last Jedi, the filmmakers were tasked with creating that from scratch, using Snoke s position of authority as the inspiration. They wanted to convey both a ceremonial and observatory feel. Heinrichs returned to some amazing early Ralph McQuarrie images, showing Darth Vader sitting on a throne in what looks like a hell environment with stalactites erupting from the floor and a cool light bathing him. He applied that central idea to Snoke, but in a more ritualistic way. Something that befitted his position as well as something you might expect on this Mega Destroyer, explains Heinrichs. Johnson had also envisaged red hanging drapery, a device for seeing through space to other places. We ended up with something that was both very architectural and vigorous looking, with columns, and the hallway leading up to Snoke s Throne, says Heinrichs. There s an Oz aspect to it all, the idea of the color red and how it conveys both authority and bloodthirstiness, and overall giving it that hellish aspect. Within that, the filmmakers played with the idea of the Praetorian Guards, dressed in red, almost disappearing into the background and appearing only as needed. The positive effects of working on practical sets was not lost on the actors. The sets were absolutely amazing. Stunning. You forget that you re standing on a set, enthuses Daisy Ridley. The cave we shot in was just amazing. I don t know how it feels to not have that. It s just brilliant. It does make it easier, because we re there doing it. And with the costumes, the whole thing is amazing. One of the elements that Adam Driver enjoyed most about his experience on the film was the production detail. Everything s mostly practical, and Rian took the set that was set up in The Force Awakens to the next level, praises Driver. Star Wars is so much a part of our daily vocabulary around the world that there are just certain things that are taken for granted. Everyone understands that people are wearing masks, but we have to still make it real for ourselves and have it make sense and be personal. And [19]