Skip to main content

New images give us a better idea about who is who in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

STAR WARS Cast On-Set of The Force Awakens for Vanity Fair's Cover Shoot
Today is May the Fourth (be with you), the unofficial holiday for Star Wars. And given the fact that we’ve already been wowed by the latest trailer earlier in April, we can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holiday than by showing new images for the upcoming first entry in the new trilogy,
Recommended Videos
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, courtesy of a photo shoot by Vanity Fair and Annie Leibovitz revealed in the video above.

Among many anticipated characters, the photo shoot revealed Adam Driver (Girls) as Kylo Ren, the hooded baddie who had the honor of wielding the three-pronged lightsaber in the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens. While his all black outfit recalls Luke’s Jedi garb in Return of the Jedi, Kylo Ren is clearly on the other side here, as we get a peek at the “Snowtroopers” right behind him. As Variety reports, Kylo is part of The First Order, which is the new name for the Empire following the aftermath of the defeat of Emperor Palpatine in the aforementioned Return of the Jedi. The rebel alliance will be called the Resistance in the new film.

We also get to see Lupita Nyong’o’s face full of motion capture tracking dots to play the computer generated character Maz Kanata. As Vanity Fair reports, we don’t know whether Kanata will be part of the Resistance, but the photo of the rogue’s gallery, filled with smugglers and galactic travelers, hints she is of the same ilk as Han Solo, and Chewbaca — slightly less than savory, in other words. That doesn’t necessarily reveal whether she’s a villain, or a team player like Han and Chewie turned out to be, but in the Star Wars canon, it could mean she can be swayed towards the light.

Star Wars veteran Peter Mayhew, aka Chewbacca, also revealed via tweet the identity of Gwendoline Christie’s character. The Game of Thrones actress will play Captain Phasma, described as a First Order officer:

Of course, not everyone is new to the scene, as we see Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron standing triumphantly next to his X-Wing fighter. Revealed during the Star Wars Celebration event, Dameron’s role in the movie comes from a mission handed down to him by “a certain princess,” who we can presume is Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia.

Newcomer Daisy Ridley, who will play Rey, is also shown in a behind-the-scenes picture with director J.J. Abrams, as we see her piloting her speeder through a marketplace in her home world of Jakku.

Finally, we see the folks behind the curtain, so to speak, including the brilliantly integral composer John Williams, producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, and the director and fellow co-writer, J.J. Abrams.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18.

Williams Pelegrin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…
From Prequelists to Reylos, these are the 9 definitive types of Star Wars fans
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars fans don't get along. The fandom has been called toxic and divided, and many times, it's lived up to that stereotype.

But I, for one, count the diversity of the fanbase as a positive. It's what's led to the wide range of stories, genres, and media types over the years, each generating its own small base of fans. More broadly, these fanbases are created based on your generation and what part of the series you gravitated to first for whatever reason. I hope you'll be able to find yourself among at least one of these waves of Star Wars fans and start to see that there's enough room at the table for us all.
The Original Trilogy Boomers

Read more
Star Trek vs. Star Wars: which one is better in 2023?
Diego Luna walks through a scrapyard of ships in a scene from Andor.

For as long as both entities have existed, fans of science fiction and fantasy have debated the merits of Star Trek and Star Wars. But for most of the 45 years that the two franchises have overlapped, Star Trek and Star Wars haven’t actually had much in common, apart from their cosmic setting. Star Trek is an aspirational sci-fi series set in humanity’s future, while Star Wars is a bombastic fantasy adventure that takes place in a far-off galaxy. One has primarily lived on weekly television, while the other has broken big-screen box office numbers.
However, in recent years, both Star Trek and Star Wars have become tentpoles for their parent companies’ subscription streaming services, Paramount+ and Disney+, respectively, each pumping out a steady stream of content in an ever-widening array of formats. This has led them to encroach further into each other’s territory than ever before. Star Trek vs. Star Wars is no longer an apples-to-oranges comparison — they are directly competing products, sharing some of the same ambitions and struggling against the same environmental forces.
We will likely never settle on which space franchise is the greatest of all time, but we can take a moment to ask: Which is better right now?

Star Trek and Star Wars have both leaned heavily into fan service

Read more
Darth Vader vs. Kylo Ren: which one is the better Star Wars villain?
A split image of Darth Vader and Kylo Ren in Star Wars movies.

Star Wars eras are defined as much by their villains as by their heroes. While Emperor Sheev Palpatine is the overarching evil mastermind behind the entire Skywalker Saga, he’s never truly been the face of the franchise. That honor falls to the grim reaper of the galaxy, Darth Vader. His intimidating stature (provided by bodybuilder David Prowse), booming voice (courtesy of James Earl Jones), and menacing helmet (designed by Ralph McQuarrie and sculpted by Brian Muir) have made him an immortal pop culture icon.
But what about his successor from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)? Positioned as the new hotness among merciless enforcers of space fascism, it seems the man once called Ben Solo never really got his due as a top-shelf villain in cinema’s most inescapable franchise. With the Skywalker Saga now years in our rearview, it’s time to reevaluate the question: Who is the better character, Darth Vader or Kylo Ren?

Darth Vader is unquestionably cooler than Kylo Ren

Read more