Ever since way back in 2015 when we heard that Benicio del Toro will play a character in The Last Jedi we’ve been dying to find out just what he will be doing in the film. Let’s take a moment to review what we know, and what we think we know about this character.
We’ve only recently got a confirmed label for this guy “DJ”, however we don’t know if this is an actual name or just a production name. Amazingly, Making Star Wars nailed his name way back on April 5th.
Benicio del Toro has a certain swagger about him. Paradoxically, he often appears contemplative and aloof at the same time. Among the first rumors about the character he’ll be playing a major villain or at least the idea that he was a bad guy. However, a year later Making Star Wars shed some more light on the character:
it doesn’t appear the heroes see del Toro as a bad guy, at least not at first
As MSW pointed out, this places DJ as sort of a Lando character in a way, that short of shifts from appearing bad to good to our heroes. That is, Lando seemed like a friend a first, then gave Han and Leia up to the Empire, then ultimately saved them. True to ring theory, in some ways, the opposite could be said about Dooku, who started out as a “can-do-no-wrong” former Jedi, only to be revealed a bad dude.
Next we got the news from Making Star Wars that del Toro was spotted in Dubrovnik, filming for scenes taking place on the Casino planet Canto Bight. Combining this with the follow-up story from MSW that there will be a chase scene in Dubrovnik, it places DJ somewhere in the thick of things.
All of these reports taken together suggest that DJ will help out Finn and Rose (who we know are on Canto Bight) escape the First Order, who are chasing them through the streets of Canto Bight outside of a casino. At first, Finn and Rose are afraid of this guy, maybe think he going to sell them out to the First Order. However, DJ somehow saves them. It’s been said by Making Star Wars that DJ has a really nice ship (who else? They seem to have been delivering all the del Toro leaks). Connecting with above, it suggests that DJ will help our crew escape from the chase on this ship. MSW describes his ship:
It looks like if someone took the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films and designed the interior of the Falcon for a new Trek film….The inside of the ship at Pinewood was a mixture of Amidala’s Nubian ship from The Phantom Menace mixed with the look and feel of the Abram’s Trek and a few hints of the sleek “Apple” design aesthetic we saw revitalize the look of the classic Stormtrooper into the First Order Stormtrooper we have today.
What better way to escape a chase on Canto Bight than jumping from your space horse to a space ship? The other possible scenario is Finn and Rose are there to break DJ out of jail. MSW has said on their podcast Now this is Podcasting (Reddit has a breakdown here too) that Finn and Rose are on Canto Bight to meet up with a contact who either is DJ or the character played by Justin Theroux, who needs to get DJ out of jail/helps them get DJ out of jail. This would also fit the friend or enemy dichotomy we would expect from a Lando type character and it would make DJ seem shady if they had to bust him out of jail.
In the end it appears that DJ will be a small role that provides Finn and Rose with help at an important time. The character could be expanded upon later either in comics, novels, or even Episode IX and I would not be surprised to see all three post TLJ.
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