When the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted online last November, audiences around the world got their chance to see three key new major characters in the legendary sci-fi universe: Daisy Ridley’s Rey, John Boyega’s Finn, and Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron. Unfortunately, the trailer didn’t really show us much about the protagonists, outside of their costumes and the environments we can expect to see them in, but the good news is that all three actors just revealed some very interesting tidbits about the individual roles at Star Wars Celebration this morning.
During the first panel of the Anaheim-based expo, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac joined director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy on stage, and while answering questions revealed some previously unknown details about their respective characters. Read on to learn a bit more about the brand new trio!
Rey – Daisy Ridley
Perhaps because she has spent so much time being told not to give anything away about her character, Daisy Ridley actually seemed legitimately excited to be on stage and finally revealing certain aspects of the role that she will be playing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Contrary to rumors that were spreading around, she is not actually from Tatooine, but instead from a different desert planet altogether – a planet called Jakku. She described herself as a scavenger who lives in a ship graveyard (which goes a long way in explaining the crashed Star Destroyer seen in the new trailer). She is self-sufficent and solitary, but "meets another character" and sees her adventure begin. And while she didn’t specifically say who this character is, it was heavily hinted that it will be…
Finn - John Boyega
Thanks to last year’s teaser, John Boyega’s Finn was actually the first of the new characters we got to "meet" from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but sadly the actor is still trying to keep his role in the movie as secretive as possible. As described by Boyega during the panel, the character begins the story finding himself in incredible danger. This fact winds up changing his life completely, and "launches him into the Star Wars universe in a unique way." That’s not much to go on, but it was finally confirmed that the character does indeed start the movie as a Stormtrooper (a reveal that earned him a comedic glare from J.J. Abrams on stage).
Poe Dameron – Oscar Isaac
As you probably figured out from both this new trailer and the previously released preview, Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron is an X-Wing pilot – but what you may not know is that he describes himself as "the best fricken pilot in the galaxy." Rather surprisingly, it was revealed that Poe’s role in the plot comes from a mission that he is given from "a certain princess" (who we can probably all assume is Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia). It’s while doing this mission that he winds up coming across John Boyega’s Finn, and while it wasn’t really teased what we can expect from their relationship together, Isaac offered that "their fates are forever intertwined."
The Star Wars Celebration is going to be going on throughout the rest of the weekend, so we’re hoping that this may not be all we hear about Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ new characters. In the meantime, stay tuned for more of our coverage, and get ready for the film’s release on December 17th!
