Brooke Bunny
In addition to a whole assortment of “Star Wars” bits and pieces that hit the net over the past day or so, Lucasfilm let EW have some wonderful new photos from “The Force Awakens”. Those same pics have now been released to the general media – and in glorious high-res. Amongst the pictures, a look at C3P0’s newly-colored arm (what might’ve happened there?), a menacing shot of the villains Kylo Ren, A ‘hero’ shot of Poe, and a couple of good ones of the film’s female lead, Rey.
In addition, JJ Abrams was asked – in that same issue of EW – about how he came up with some of the names of the characters in the new movie.
Firstly, in reference to Finn and Rey, and not revealing their surnames, Abrams responds : “I will only say about that that it is completely intentional that their last names aren’t public record”.
Is he hinting that one or both might be related to, say, the Skywalkers or Solo’s? (maybe a Calrissian?)
Poe Dameron was named after Morgan Dameron, Abrams’ assistant. “Dameron came out because it was, obviously, a name that I know, and it just musically felt right,” Abrams says. “There was no sort of deep reasoning behind it, and I also knew it would make Morgan blush if we named a character that. So she had this giant smile on her face.”
As for Poe, Abrams says it was also one he switched back and forth on.
“We went through a bunch of different names, and Poe ultimately felt like the right name,” he says, though he admits there may have been a deeper meaning than he realized. “Someone reminded me recently that my daughter had had a polar bear named Poe [or Po’ — short for “polar”], and that might’ve been why it felt right. There was a kind of sweetness to, and a charm to that name.”
BB-8? “I named him BB-8 because it was almost onomatopoeia,” the director says. “It was sort of how he looked to me, with the 8, obviously, and then the 2 B’s.”
What about the sinister General Hux? “We were walking through a cemetery that’s near the Bad Robot offices,” says Abrams. “And we would often, as we were talking about characters, sort of just be glancing at names to see if any of them stuck. I don’t believe that Hux came from there, but it may have.”
What about Chrome Trooper Captain Phasma? “Phasma I named because of the amazing chrome design that came from Michael Kaplan’s wardrobe team,” says Abrams. “It reminded me of the ball in Phantasm, and I just thought, Phasma sounds really cool.”
Abrams won’t talk about Kylo Ren, except to say “He is not your prototypical mustache-twirling bad guy. He is a little bit more complex than that.”
