Disney, Lucasfilm and director Rian Johnson have done a great job so far of keeping specific plot details for the still untitled Star Wars: Episode VIII under wraps, but as the months roll by we’re beginning to learn a little more about the movie and the new characters we’ll be meeting.
Though this must all be considered as a rumor until we get official word on it, Making Star Wars has come by some intriguing details on three of the new faces that’ll be introduced in the film: the mysterious characters played by Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran.
When the news first broke that Del Toro had joined the cast, it was reported that he’d be playing a new villain, though the actor himself has refused to confirm this in recent interviews. Here, his character is referenced as a “man in black,” and although he may well turn out to be a baddie, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be clear to our heroes right away.
Benicio del Toro has been described as a classic “man in black.” As in he wears all black and he’s dangerous. His character is clean shaven with hair not unlike Poe Dameron’s in length. It doesn’t appear the heroes see del Toro as a bad guy, at least not at first. We think he’s connected to the casino set we talked about sometime ago.
As for Dern’s character, her motivations and allegiances remain a mystery, but we do have some details on her appearance.
Laura Dern is probably the most bombastic of the new characters from the rumors we’ve heard. She is very aristocratic and fancy in a way we haven’t really seen in Star Wars before. Her look is unique. Someone compared her design to The Hunger Games-meets-Star Wars. Dern wears a “fancy” dress and her hair is like something out of the prequels. The biggest defining detail of this new character played by Laura Dern is that she has pink hair
The site doesn’t know quite as much about “jumpsuited Kelly Marie Tran,” but they do reveal that her look is “almost the opposite” of Dern’s (ie, normal), and that her story winds up intersecting with Finn’s in a very cool way.
Star Wars: Episode VIII is on course to hit theatres on December 15th, 2017.