From the opening frames, it's clear that writer/director Rian Johnson planned to take The Last Jedi
into a galaxy far, far away from every Star Wars film preceding it.
That's true for both the story and the characters who made that story happen.
While some of them didn't get a lot of time in front of the audience, they definitely
contributed to the saga—often more than you might realize.
Here are all the characters in Star Wars: The Last Jedi who mean more than you think.
General Hux
In The Force Awakens, the whole First Order thing kind of feels like an excuse to keep
having stormtroopers, even though they shouldn't have been around anymore.
Since, you know, they were basically Ewok tom-toms at the end of Episode 6.
Well, as with anything Star Wars, there's a lengthy backstory now as to how the First
Order came to be, and it all started with General Hux.
In both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Hux serves as the head military honcho who
essentially took the place of Moff Tarkin.
But he's actually a big reason why the First Order exists in the first place.
The novel Phasma describes how Hux was a child when the Empire was defeated.
He traveled into exile with his father and started cultivating what became the First
Order using the ideology of the defunct Empire.
With Captain Phasma, he concocted a plan to assassinate his father.
About ten years after that, Hux was a general in charge of Starkiller Base, and the rest
is cinematic history.
But judging by the meager screentime he gets, fans probably wouldn't guess that Hux is directly
responsible for all of this.
And while we're on the topic of the First Order…
Captain Phasma
The first question savvy fans might have after watching The Last Jedi is, why the heck wasn't
Captain Phasma punished after basically letting the Resistance waltz onto Starkiller Base
and lower the defensive shields in The Force Awakens?
Well, first off, in the comic Captain Phasma, we learn that Phasma simply went into the
computer system and framed a lowly lieutenant for that little security breach.
Easy peasy.
Secondly, Phasma actually holds a lot more sway in the First Order than the films let
on.
Aside from Supreme Leader-slash-hobgoblin Snoke, the First Order is controlled by what
StarWars.com calls a "triumvirate" of commanders–Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Captain Phasma.
Phasma's specific job is to oversee all the stormtroopers in the First Order.
She also occasionally steps in and personally trains some of the troopers, notably the FN
Corps –which you might recognize as Finn's unit.
Phasma personally trained the turncoat who helps destroy almost everything the First
Order throws at the Resistance, so to say that she plays a crucial role in the story
is putting it mildly.
Vice Admiral Holdo
Laura Dern's character, Vice Admiral Holdo, began the movie as something as a thorn in
Dameron's side, but it's safe to say that by the end of it she totally redeemed herself.
"You go and do something like this, AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!"
The Last Jedi is the first time we've seen this character onscreen, but Holdo actually
has a long history with Leia.
As in, they're basically childhood friends.
According to the young adult novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan, Holdo first met Leia on Coruscant
the same year the events of The Empire Strikes Back take place.
Holdo soon learned about Leia's involvement in the Rebellion, and even helped her on a
few missions during those early years.
When Leia got around to setting up the Resistance in the years before The Force Awakens, her
old friend Holdo was one of Leia's first choices to help lead the rebels against the First
Order.
So even though she's never been on a movie screen before The Last Jedi, Holdo has been
part of the saga since the beginning.
Maz Kanata
First introduced in The Force Awakens, goggle-eyed Maz Kanata seems to know just about everyone
and everything in the galaxy.
The pirate queen obviously lives an adventurous life, as evidenced by her brief, explosive
cameo in The Last Jedi.
When we first meet her, Han Solo mentions that she's had her castle for "a thousand
years."
So she's been around, but how much exactly has Kanata seen?
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary suggests that Kanata was well known by the
Empire during the years of the original trilogy.
Even more intriguing, though, is the idea that Kanata has seen just about the entire
history of the Star Wars universe–and been a pretty prominent figure during a lot of
it.
In fact, the first time fans ever laid eyes on her wasn't in The Force Awakens.
In The Phantom Menace, you can glimpse a statue of what's believed to be Kanata in Anakin's
bedroom on Tatooine.
According to the Star Wars Twitter account, it's an alien pirate, and Anakin got the statue
from a trader passing through Mos Espa.
Sure, it's a little far-fetched, but Maz is an alien pirate who's something of a legend.
If that is Maz, then even within the Star Wars universe she's cool enough to get her
own action figures.
And baby Darth Vader had one.
He probably played with it all the time.
DJ
Benicio del Toro's character of DJ the codebreaker was teased months before the film came out,
and his extended cameo in The Last Jedi didn't disappoint.
If anything, it left fans wanting more, and Disney is stepping up to the challenge.
If you thought there was more to DJ's story than The Last Jedi revealed, you're completely
right.
January 2018 will see the release of an exclusive comic book detailing his backstory.
Since he seems to know so much about how the First Order and Resistance are funded, we're
guessing he's been involved with the ongoing war for a long while.
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!