She’s a First Order trooper with chrome armor, but what more do we know about her?
Captain Phasma is a character who has taken on almost mythic proportions and the movie hasn’t even been released yet. But, really, in actuality we don’t know much about her since the filmmakers have been so tight lipped. Sure, she has a cool set of armor… but who is she?
We’ve created this guide to find out.
Who’s playing her?
Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2), in an inspired piece of casting. According to the filmmakers, Phasma was originally a man. However, when the initial cast photo was released and the film was criticized for only having one female character they decided to switch genders for the character. Gwendoline Christie didn’t even know.
What’s Captain Phasma’s deal?
She’s an elite trooper in the First Order and apparently is very devoted to the cause. We don’t know much more other than that. We have a feeling Finn serves under her in the beginning, though.
What’s with her armor?
It was a design originally pitched for Kylo Ren:
“The costume for Captain Phasma was designed. That was actually pitched as a Kylo Ren costume originally. For story reasons it didn’t make sense and didn’t work, but we suddenly realized, ‘Oh my God, this is one of the greatest-looking costumes I’ve ever seen.’ And he, then she, became one of my favorite characters in the movie.”
We don’t know if every captain in the First Order stormtrooper corps carries that type of armor, but the chrome armor reminded Abrams of the horror more Phantasm… hence the character’s final name:
“Phasma I named because of the amazing chrome design that came from Michael Kaplan’s wardrobe team. It reminded me of the ball in Phantasm, and I just thought, Phasma sounds really cool.”
Will we see her under the armor?
We don’t know, but we’re kind of doubting it. After all, it’s pretty obvious she’s being positioned as the Boba Fett of this trilogy. In the original trilogy, Boba Fett never took off his mask so we’re not really expecting her to either… though we could easily be mistaken on that front.
Is she Force sensitive?
There has been no indications that she is, so we’re thinking no. If she were, we imagine she’d be a Knight of Ren.
Does she have a ship?
Not that we know of. She seems to operate out of the First Order Star Destroyer Finalzer.
What’s her relationship to Kylo Ren and General Hux?
She seems to answer to General Hux, who has a adversarial partnership with Kylo Ren. They all serve Supreme Leader Snoke.
What role will she play in the film?
We suspect she’ll be about the same as Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back. She’ll certainly throw a monkey wrench into our hero’s plans… but she won’t be as prominent as Kylo Ren in the narrative. She’ll probably be chasing Finn for escaping from the First Order. Outside of that, we can’t really say.
Will she be in the Episode VIII?
She will! Kathleen Kennedy officially confirmed it.
