Rumors Regarding Star Wars Episode VIII’s Three Newcomers.

star-wars-8-benicio-del-toro-laura-dern-kelly-marie-tran

The rumor train over at Making Star Wars has started up again after a relative dearth of information concerning Rogue One‘s production (aside from a few key points about the movie’s story, such as the importance of Galen Erso and Darth Vader to the movie’s plot). About a year and one month out from the release of the film, the site has discovered a few details regarding Episode VIII‘s three new characters (portrayed by Laura Dern, Benicio Del Toro, and Kelly Marie Tran) – specifically, what they wear and what they look like. (Image above courtesy of Screen Rant.)

 

I should note that there are no real spoilers here, as the characters are described solely by appearance; story elements are hinted at by the article’s author, but there’s nothing that will ruin the movie for you. Still, if you want to wait to see what these characters look like, this is your last warning – you can still hit that back button on your browser.

benicio_del_toro_1

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. While The Wrap let us know he was up for the role of the bad guy in the film sometime ago, 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. On paper it sounds a little close to Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back but before you panic, there are some details we’re still working on that make that appear to a bit of a stretch. We’ll have more to report on Episode VIII’s “man in black” in the future.

So from the sounds of things, it appears as though Benicio Del Toro will in fact be playing someone with a background in the criminal underworld of the setting – which, given his body of work as an actor, would be a rather unsurprising case of type-casting. It would make sense if the New Republic was founded on a degree of corruption given that it went up against the vast resources of the Empire, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see either the New Republic or its offshoot of the Resistance having to make friends in low places to survive.

Laura Dern

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 in Star Wars: Episode VIII. Sources are at a loss for words when they tried to describe her hair which is very ornate, almost like something out of the Outlander Club in Attack of the Clones.

So with the whole “pink hair” thing, it’s probably safe to throw the popular fan theory that Laura Dern could be playing an older version of Evaan Verlaine out the window. With such an odd choice of hair color, there’s even a chance that Dern may be playing a near-human alien. In any case, it seems as though her character fits the profile of a New Republic official to a tee, and it’s possible that we may already know her character’s name through existing lore regarding post-ROTJ canon.

 

One other thing of note – MSW also has a picture of an extra wearing a pink (or, more accurately, purple) wig from the Dubrovnik shoot on their site; they presume that this extra may be a body double for Laura Dern’s character, though they note that this may not be the case.

Kellytran

In the near future we will have details to share on a jumpsuited Kelly Marie Tran and her role in the film and how she ends up tangled up with Finn in their shared story. Her look is almost the opposite of Dern’s character. She’s just very normal looking but her situation is supposedly really cool. We’ll have more on Finn and Kelly Marie Tran in the near future we can share.

Bossk from The Empire Strikes Back is the only Star Wars character that comes to mind when jumpsuits are mentioned, so if the costume for Kelly Marie Tran’s character looks anything like that, then we should be good. It should be very interesting to see how her story with Finn plays out, as John Boyega and Daisy Ridley have both mentioned that her role is pretty substantial for Episode VIII.

 

So what do you think of these particular revelations? How do you think these characters are going to influence the Sequel Trilogy’s story going forward? Let us know in the comments below.

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

55 thoughts on “Rumors Regarding Star Wars Episode VIII’s Three Newcomers.

  • November 17, 2016 at 1:29 am
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    excellent news on del toro’s character. seems like we’re pretty full on new order villains atm, so something different would be great.

  • November 17, 2016 at 1:38 am
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    I think Dern is playing Carise Sindian from Bloodline.

    • November 17, 2016 at 1:48 am
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      CG said she pictured Carise as Asian. And she doesn’t have pink hair.

      • November 17, 2016 at 6:26 am
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        I don’t remember her hair color being mentioned, though she could definitely change it in 6-7 years, right? And even if the author thought she was Asian, the movie producers may think differently.

        • November 17, 2016 at 6:49 am
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          When Carise Sindian is introduced in Bloodlines she is described as having Dark hair and golden skin. Notwithstanding the creative power a producer like K. Kennedy has, Rian Johnson himself, the Ep VIII director, served as a key creative consultant to Claudia on Bloodlines. I think any character to be played by someone of Laura Derns prowess would not have been described as a different ethnicity or hair colour regardless of the 5 years between the two. Think what you want though.

          Or maybe Rian is borrowing from/riffing off Face Off, that classic masterpiece of action cinema.

          • November 17, 2016 at 7:45 am
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            And saw gerrera had bright blue eyes too… until now.

          • November 17, 2016 at 2:22 pm
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            Hair color changes. You can have dark hair 6 years ago and dye it pink today. Unless you think her hair is supposed to be naturally pink. As for her ethnicity, golden skin can be pretty much any ethnicity: Asian, Hispanic, black, Arabic, Mediterranean, Native American, white person that goes tanning, etc. Not sure how either of those things precludes Dern portraying Carise.

          • November 17, 2016 at 4:43 pm
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            …because the director of the film helped write key crossover elements of the book, tweeting about it, and yet clearly did not go out of his way to connect the characters. We have two descriptions with zero visual overlap and your theory rests on the word ‘aristocratic’ as chosen by the esteemed J. Ward – who hasn’t seen the character anyway and who previously reported Dern was playing and Admiral-type from the NR who has a showdown with Poe.

            Keep clutching at your staws bro, you are clearly very attached to your idea for some reason. I hope it comes through for you.

          • November 17, 2016 at 4:58 pm
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            Thanks, bro.

    • November 17, 2016 at 2:34 am
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      You beat me to it. That would be a fascinating character to bring back to torment Leia and the Resistance.

    • November 17, 2016 at 5:46 am
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      Yup. Del Toro could also be Ransolm Casterfo. There’s also a casino scene in blood lines that might link to the described casino.

      • November 17, 2016 at 7:32 pm
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        Except (as I recall) the whole thing about treason and the death penalty as he was being taken away back to his home planet.
        The Lady Carise idea is fun because she would return looking for revenge.

  • November 17, 2016 at 1:44 am
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    Del Toro is playing prince Prana. The guy that was mentioned by the death gang involving the rathtars

    • November 17, 2016 at 2:31 am
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      Wasn’t it King?

      • November 17, 2016 at 4:46 am
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        Sorry to reply again here but there’s a character, even off screen called ‘King Prana’, I know this is star wars but, seriously.
        Will his side kick be called Knaan Bred

    • November 17, 2016 at 3:35 am
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      *King Prana

      • November 17, 2016 at 4:32 am
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        All I want is a King Pawn curry now 🙂

  • November 17, 2016 at 2:03 am
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    We have a double treat coming for you guys in just under a month.
    1:43

  • November 17, 2016 at 2:39 am
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    Cool. I would like to see how del toro is involved. A new crime lord. Yes now we are getting back to episode 8!!!

  • November 17, 2016 at 2:55 am
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    Colour me skeptical for now. I’ve read several different descriptions of these three characters, all completely different.

    Give me some *names* for these characters, and then we’ll see who’s correct soon enough.

    • November 17, 2016 at 1:50 pm
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      If the description is from the source that says that Kelly Marie Tran is only in the movie for about 30 seconds, then you were duped.

      – Pomojema

      • November 18, 2016 at 4:15 am
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        No, nothing like that. One example would be Stormtrooper Larry’s detailed leaks from earlier in the year. I have no particular reason to trust one source or the other, but at least the one was willing to assign names to the characters.

    • November 18, 2016 at 8:14 pm
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      I’ll take ‘slumming’ for a thousand, Alex. Sigh.

  • November 17, 2016 at 3:35 am
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    So Del Toro is playing himself, while Laura Dern is playing Effie from The Hunger Games. Sounds fun.

    • November 17, 2016 at 4:36 am
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      Effie? She wasn’t the first with colorful hair.

      • November 17, 2016 at 7:19 am
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        I’m aware.

      • November 17, 2016 at 7:42 am
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        Did he say she was the first?

  • November 17, 2016 at 3:36 am
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    It should be a sin to include Hunger Games and Star Wars in the same sentence. no doubt it’ll have that Star Wars vibe. I hope Disney can find a way to merge a bit of the prequels into the new trilogy. Regardless of how they were received, I’d be annoyed if that style and tone was just forgotten completely.

    • November 17, 2016 at 4:36 am
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      Guys you didn’t see the bts photos on the streets of Croatia.

    • November 17, 2016 at 7:17 pm
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      I don’t think you will see the style or tone again due to the fact that the galaxy changed so much after the Empire and the rebuild. The Prequels were a very clean world. The Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy looks like they are both are in the lived in worn down world. I don’t think it’s prequel whitewashing (As we are getting a new Maul comic and look in on Yoda before TPM) It just isn’t apart of the galaxy anymore.

    • November 18, 2016 at 7:17 pm
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      I think it has more to do with the locations the films are taking place.

      A lot of the Prequels took place in the Core, Colonies, and Mid Rim. These were places we had literally never seen in the OT, which took place exclusively in the Outer Rim.

      VII was, again, mostly in the Outer Rim. Should we travel back core ward I’d imagine we’d see Prequel aesthetics once again.

  • November 17, 2016 at 4:34 am
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    Oh well, doesn’t look like I’ll get DelToro as Hondo Ohnaka now.

    • November 17, 2016 at 11:11 am
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      I like that and this could fit with the age.

    • November 17, 2016 at 11:24 am
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      Not happenin’.

      – Pomojema

    • November 17, 2016 at 3:07 pm
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      gag

  • November 17, 2016 at 3:17 pm
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    I really hoped that Laura Dern was playing Lady Carise from Bloodline, but this pink hair may have ruined that theory.

  • November 17, 2016 at 7:13 pm
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    I still think Laura Dern is playing Lady Carise Sindian from Bloodline. I think the overly fancy dress fits the description of the centrist.

  • November 17, 2016 at 7:19 pm
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    • November 17, 2016 at 7:28 pm
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      Omg, it looks so good, but I could have sworn I’ve seen those samples before…. You know, like on the blu ray in the deleted scene section.

  • November 17, 2016 at 10:09 pm
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    People need to figure out the difference between “I think” and “I wish” when it comes to speculation.

  • November 18, 2016 at 2:29 am
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    I am going to have to go back and watch TFA really closely now to see if Rey has pink roots! XD

  • November 18, 2016 at 8:12 pm
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    Jumpsuit? Tran is playing Pearl Forester – CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!

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