Brow Beat

The First Inside Look at The Last Jedi Reveals Laura Dern’s Character, “Rich A–holes”

Welcome to the galaxy, Laura Dern.

Star Wars fans felt a disturbance in the Force on Wednesday when Vanity Fair dropped a sprawling cover story preview of The Last Jedi, complete with portraits and details about new characters and insights from the cast and crew. In between the war stories from filming and the sweet anecdotes about the late Carrie Fisher, what stood out most from the piece was just how much leeway director Rian Johnson has been given to put his own spin on the franchise. Johnson, whose previous films include Brick and Looper, explained that while his screenplay drafts were subject to review by Lucasfilm’s story group, he otherwise had near carte blanche to shape the plot and create new characters and locations. Not bad for a director who had previously never directed a film with a budget over $30 million.

One of Johnson’s inventions is a character played by Kelly Marie Tran, who we met at Star Wars Celebration, but Vanity Fair also gives us our very first look at two more: One is the character played by Benicio del Toro, referred to as “DJ” by the filmmakers, although he goes nameless in the film itself. (Apparently, we’ll have to wait until The Last Jedi comes out for an explanation.) Given that he’s described as a “shady character” with unclear allegiances, it’s probably safe to assume he’s some kind of bounty hunter or smuggler.

We also got our first glimpse of Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo, “a prominent officer in the Resistance.”

She’s giving off strong Effie Trinket vibes—which seems fitting, given that another of Johnson’s additions is a casino city called Canto Bight, “a Star Wars Monte Carlo-type environment, a little James Bond-ish, a little To Catch a Thief” with some styles that definitely wouldn’t look out of place in The Hunger Games.

Johnson told Vanity Fair that “it was an interesting challenge, portraying luxury and wealth in this universe.” That in itself is a pretty major reveal: We don’t often get to see how the upper crust lives in the Star Wars movies—outside of opulent lifestyles of politicians and royalty, that is—so it’ll be an interesting change to get to know the galaxy’s 1 percent, who Johnson calls “rich assholes.” What exactly brings our heroes into their midst, we’ll just have to wait and see.

You can also check out behind-the-scenes footage from Vanity Fair’s Star Wars shoot, here: