Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Who Is Captain Phasma?
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Slowly but surely we’re learning about the fresh faces, and in one instance a back, we’ll see in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Still, these are only the handful of newcomers to the franchise who appear in the trailer, and we know there are many more lurking around out there. For instance, what is Gwendoline Christie’s character’s name? No idea, we don’t even know what she looks like. But today we do have one more name to add to the list, though that’s all the details there are at the moment.
What the hell, we’ll throw a spoiler warning right here, even though there’s not all that much to tell.
In addition to Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), BB-8 (that ball-rollin’ droid), and Kylo Ren (the back with the cross-shaped lightsaber), we can add Captain Phasma to the mix. If I didn’t already know how silly sounding some Star Wars names are, including Poe Dameron, I’d swear this was a joke, but Captain Phasma is apparently the name of a character we’ll see in The Force Awakens, or at least a character we could see. And seriously, the name sounds like the alter ego of some spandex-clad ‘70s space rocker.
According to Stitch Kingdom, right before the other characters were revealed, Lucasfilm applied for copyrights for all of the names, but those released weren’t the only ones. Apparently Captain Phasma was on the list submitted on December 11. (I didn’t even know you could monitor that things like trademark applications.)
There’s no character named Phasma anywhere in the Star Wars world, even the extended universe. The only reference anyone has been able to track down is in some fan fiction called Tarkin’s Fist. (You have to wonder if this is like the title The Force Awakens, which had already been used for a fan film.)
However, there is one theory floating around that actually seems plausible. It’s long been rumored that Gwendoline Christie plays the leader, gender swapped from the original script, of those chrome troopers we’ve encountered, and who are possibly, according to other rumors, the personal guard of Adam Driver’s character. That’s not the most outlandish idea we’ve heard. If she’s the leader, reportedly part of the new Empire, she would have a rank, and she’s obviously not a general or other high commander, so Captain seems like it fits her place in the larger hierarchy.
Maybe, just maybe—this is all speculation on my part mind you, wild speculation, bordering on a conspiracy theory—she’s one of those stromtroopers we see in the trailer. Aside from that disembodied voice, which we’ve since learned belongs to Andy Serkis, everyone else who appears in the trailer had their name revealed, even the guy with his back to us. Maybe it’s just that the stormtroopers don’t have individual names (they did get their own trading card), but perhaps, in the scenario I envision, Phasma is one of faceless soldiers, Christie or not. Maybe they were going to throw in a Captain Phasma card along with the other but decided not to. It’s possible they thought the fact that there are a bunch of identical faces in a row would confuse people.
Most likely I’m totally off base and full of shit, but this is an idea that popped into my head for some reason. Considering that we’re talking about J.J. Abrams, a filmmaker notorious for misdirection and lying about the identity of Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, it’s entirely possible that this is a red herring. We won’t know for sure until Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in theaters on December 18, 2015, but I do rather enjoy throwing out half-baked, ridiculous theories.
