Star Wars Director J.J. Abrams Reveals What Surprised Him Most in The Last Jedi

The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker writer-director J.J. Abrams says the “biggest surprise” in the Rian Johnson-directed middle chapter of the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, was the death of chromium-plated Stormtrooper leader Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie). The high-ranking First Order officer was defeated in a scuffle with ex-Stormtrooper turned Resistance hero Finn (John Boyega), and after Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) piloted a Resistance ship into the First Order's Supremacy, Phasma fell to a fiery death. In a new interview, Abrams says he was surprised by Phasma's death because he felt there was more to mine with the character: “Obviously, I had read the script.



It wasn’t like I just went to go see Last Jedi, but I saw what Rian was doing,” Abrams told FOX 5 DC. “What I loved about his approach was that he was just subverting expectations, everywhere you looked. And I think that maybe the biggest surprise … you think Luke dying maybe was the biggest surprise or — I guess spoiler alert — [Kylo] Ren killing Snoke, there were certain things that felt like they were… weirdly, for me, the thing that was the most surprising was Phasma dying.” The death caught Abrams off-guard because Phasma, introduced in The Force Awakens as a foil for Finn, was “one of those characters that I felt there was something else [for her to do].” For Abrams, who had the corrupted Ben Solo (Adam Driver) murder father Han (Harrison Ford), the key was having Han's death serve a purpose for both his son and budding Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley).