We know very little about Benicio del Toro’s character, but what we do know is starting to fit into the emerging big picture. Let’s take a moment and contemplate why our heroes Finn and Rose need a “hacker”, or “slicer” in the parlance of the galaxy far far away.
R2D2 and his scomplink plugging into the Death Star
First off, what we do know about Benicio del Toro’s character, DJ, is that he is a “slicer”, which is a computer hacker of the Star Wars world. So just like R2 can plug in and interpret the network with his “scomplink”, DJ has tactics that accomplish a similar task.
In the recent Entertainment Weekly article, DJ is described as “dodgy” and only in it for the money. Boyega describes him as neither for the Resistance or the First Order, and only enters the fray when it benefits him. Kelly Marie Tran describes him as unpredictable. Like a “tiger in the room” that could pounce at any moment.
DJ from the Vanity Fair BTS reel
So why do our heroes take a risk with this guy, and why do the need a “slicer”? I think there is a chance that it has to do with another tiny detail that we have for The Last Jedi. We wrote an article about the word “bio-hexacrypt” and how it might refer to Finn’s medical pod. The article talks about this tumblr post with the mystery word:
One of the comments we got was that the “crypt” could actually mean something related to “cryptography” and “encryption”, meaning it could have something to do with the code that they need DJ to break. We do know that Finn and Rose start off looking like this:
EW.com, Disney
And then later infiltrate the First Order in disguise, presumably requiring DJ’s help to get in:
Variety BTS video
The question is why, and when. The why is likely related to the casino planet, “Cantonica”. They might meet DJ on this planet, and then learn something important. Rian Johnson describes the city Canto Bight on Cantonica as a “luxury resort that’s been built on this very otherwise abandoned, arid planet. It’s like Vegas with aliens”. Given the opulent dress of the casino patrons, it suggests a connection to Snoke. Could it be that these patrons also help fund the First Order? Do Finn and Rose learn something on Cantonica? According to Breznican:
The background of the featured image of this article might suggest he is sitting in the underbelly of Canto Bight. We know that Finn and Rose are on the run, and may end up running away from the Canto Bight police and run into DJ. They may be seeking him out, and DJ may in fact be the sole reason for Finn headed to Canto Bight.
It seems apparent that Finn’s main mission is to infiltrate the First Order for some sort of data acquisition or mission of destruction. Finn would be the best choice since he is already familiar with how the First Order operates and can fit in with ease. Based on the leaked playsets and lines from the play sets it appears that they will infiltrate Snoke’s command ship. Although playsets are not the most reliable source it does seem to fit. The First Order no doubt have extremely tight security measures to protect Snoke. This is where DJ comes in, he can create the needed IDs for Rose and Finn to get on the command ship. The only problem with using someone like DJ is he is just as likely to set you up to be caught, if the money is right.
