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).

Shang-Chi Star Simu Liu Was Hysterical After Landing MCU Role: “It’s Terrifying”

Simu Liu, who will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as its first leading Asian superhero when he headlines Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for Marvel Studios, admits the experience has been “terrifying” — and his initial call from the studio overseen by Kevin Feige left him “hysterical.” The Canadian actor was first announced as Marvel Comics' martial arts expert at San Diego Comic-Con in July, where Feige said the Disney-owned studio underwent “a really in-depth search to try to find somebody who will capture this character with all the dimensions that he deserves and it’s going pretty well we found him.” “It’s terrifying,” Liu said in a profile by South China Morning Post. “When I got the call from Marvel, I was crying, just hysterical, and I remember thinking immediately after, ‘Why am I crying?’ I think it was because this is such a wonderful opportunity, and my life is going to change forever. But I am going to have to say goodbye to certain parts of my life.

There’s a kind of grieving process that has to start as well.” It’s not all scary. “Kids are going to dress up like me for Halloween,” a smiley Liu said. After Liu was cast, one of the star's cheeky tweets resurfaced: in a tweet published in December 2018, Liu wrote, “OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi.” Months later, Liu replied to his own tweet with a Marvel-like joke: “Well sh*t.” “I didn’t just send a tweet and then they called,” Liu explained of the viral tweet that earned more than 62,000 likes. “[It was] a long process of phone conversations, callbacks and auditions that happened over a couple of months.” Now tasked with convincingly portraying a character who is among the most skilled fighters in the entire Marvel universe, Liu is “training very hard” under stunt coordinator Brad Allan — described as “a phenomenal martial artist who trained under Jackie Chan” — and Allan has “assembled a wonderful team around me,” Liu noted. Liu is “awesome,” Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton previously told MTV News. “There’s just an undefined thing that when somebody pops, everybody’s in agreement, and they’re just really excited.”