Director Rian Johnson says fans will get to see more of Captain Phasma "in action" in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Played by Game of Thrones actor Gwendoline Christie, Phasma was immediately embraced by fans when she turned up in the first official trailer for The Force Awakens in 2015, only to leave filmgoers feeling a bit cheated by how little the silver-armored stormtrooper was actually featured in the film.
Making matters worse was the fate Phasma suffered in The Force Awakens, since Finn (John Boyega) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) - in an obvious ode to a classic scene from the first Star Wars film in 1977 - forced the character into Starkiller Base's trash compactor; effectively making fans relive the unceremonious exit of famed bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) in Return of the Jedi.
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Seizing on the popularity of the character, Lucasfilm made sure that Phasma survived the destruction of Starkiller Base and promised a much bigger role for the First Order villain in The Last Jedi. In an interview with EW about the film, Johnson wants fans to know that he's made good on the promise, and gave a peek into what's ahead for Phasma:
“Gwendoline Christie is one of my favorite people, and you get to see her in action which I think is going to be really fun. That character is just so damn cool looking. Like, okay, let’s see what we can do with her. Let’s put her in action and see what happens.”
While Johnson is confirming what fans probably already expected, it's great to hear about the filmmaker's enthusiasm for the character - since he's made it clear in the past that he's as much a Star Wars fan as he is a Star Wars filmmaker. Clearly, he realizes the potential menace the character can bring to the film and the brief clip of Phasma in The Last Jedi's teaser trailer shows the action that Johnson describes as the head stormtrooper leads an assault on a Resistance base.
There's bound to be some intense confrontations, too, as Boyega has promised that there will be a face-off between Finn and his former stormtrooper boss. On top of that, Phasma may even remove her helmet in The Last Jedi (that is, if Christie's photo in Vanity Fair's coverage of the film in May gives any indication); and if she does, it will naturally add another untapped layer of the character that wasn't explored in The Force Awakens.
Whether the character is unmasked on not in The Last Jedi, it clearly sounds like Phasma fanatics will finally get their fill of the character they desired to see much more of, back in 2015.
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Source: EW
