Lucasfilm proudly presents the next episode of its iconic Star Wars space saga—Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which picks up the story immediately after the end of the seventh episode, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was welcomed by fans and critics alike with an excitement that’s rarely been seen since the first Star Wars movie was released four decades prior. Audiences embraced the movie’s new team of heroes and villains, and welcomed back some old friends, reinforcing the idea that Star Wars remains a far-reaching cultural influence, appealing to people regardless of age, culture or gender. Breaking box office records and garnering rave reviews, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was also nominated for five Academy Awards®, won the BAFTA for Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects and left audiences clamoring for the next installment. In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past. The film stars Mark Hamill (Star Wars original trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Carrie Fisher (Star Wars original trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Adam Driver (“Logan Lucky,” “Silence”), Daisy Ridley (“Murder on the Orient Express,” Star Wars: The Force Awakens), John Boyega (“Detroit,” “The Circle”), Oscar Isaac (“The Promise,” “X-Men: Apocalypse”), Lupita Nyong’o (“The Queen of Katwe,” “12 Years a Slave”), Andy Serkis (“War for the Planet of the Apes,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy), Domhnall Gleeson (“Goodbye Christopher Robin,” “Mother!”), Anthony Daniels (Star Wars trilogies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Gwendoline Christie (“Game of Thrones,” “Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2”, Kelly Marie Tran (“XOXO,” “Adam Ruins Everything”), Laura Dern (“Wilson,” “Wild”) and Benicio Del Toro (“Sicario,” “Traffic”).

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi is written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman. J.J. Abrams, Tom Karnowski and Jason McGatlin are the executive producers. The producers and Johnson assembled an outstanding team of filmmakers to help bring The Last Jedi to the screen, including director of photography Steve Yedlin (“Looper,” “San Andreas”); production designer Rick Heinrichs (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Sleepy Hollow”); editor Bob Ducsay (“Godzilla,” “Looper”); costume designer Michael Kaplan (“Star Trek,” “Winter’s Tale”); with special creature effects by Neal Scanlan (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “Babe”) and music by John Williams (Star Wars, “Jurassic Park”). Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in U.S. theaters on December 15, 2017.

THE WRITER/DIRECTOR The exciting task of continuing the Skywalker saga fell to writer/director Rian Johnson. Johnson had already shown a real knack for complex sci-fi storytelling in his time-bending, critically acclaimed “Looper,” but what made him the right director to succeed J.J. Abrams in the director’s chair? President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy explains: “He has a remarkable uniqueness to what he does. He writes as beautifully as he directs, and he writes amazingly fierce and independent women. He’s also got a great sense of humor, and that’s so important to Star Wars.” “Rian’s quirkiness is so interesting,” expands Kennedy, “and that’s what he has very specifically brought to the storytelling. We are working really hard to make sure that each of these movies reflects some aspect of the filmmaker—who they are and what their contribution is to the story. Rian observes human behavior really well. He’s got a very good heart and a real soul to what he does.” Johnson admits that he had to take some time to think about coming on to write and direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi. “It was a big decision, actually,” Johnson says. “On one hand, it was something that I felt was a dream offer. On the other hand, it was a big, life-changing deal. I wanted to make sure it was something that was going to be a good experience, and it really has been.” His ultimate choice was the start of a thrilling adventure. “Like many folks my age, Star Wars is imbedded in my psyche,” Johnson says. “Some of my earliest memories of creative play, of telling my own stories, were with Star Wars toys and in that universe. So I think I was anticipating much more fear and trepidation at the weight of actually working on a real Star Wars film. Of course there was pressure and there were nerves and fear, but maybe because of that primal connection to the world, the overriding emotion of the process was happiness. I had the time of my life making this movie. In many ways it felt the closest I’ve ever gotten to a professional equivalent of that freewheeling play, being a kid and running around the room with action figures.”

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The Last Jedi is the biggest film Johnson has done in terms of size and scope, but he approached the project with the attitude that “the only way to tackle it was to just jump into it and start doing it.” He explains, “If I had let myself zoom back and look at the enormity of the task, and the responsibility of it, I would have just been paralyzed and spent the last few years curled up in the fetal position. I looked at where The Force Awakens left off, and I wrote down the names of each one of the characters, and I started writing and asking myself what I knew about each of these characters. What do I think they want? Where can I see them going? And what would be the hardest thing for each of them to come up against? And once I got to a place where I had something for each one of them that made sense, I started drawing it out into a story. So it’s kind of like eating an elephant. You just do it one bite at a time.” Realizing that his focus did not have to be on the epic nature of the film, Johnson says, “I knew that the bigness and the epic sense and all of that would sort itself out. I knew that would just naturally happen, because once we started playing with these toys we came up with cool battles and cool stuff. What I needed to really work about it were the characters and the story. That was really the starting point of the whole thing.” He adds, “Because it’s the middle chapter of a trilogy, this is the one where we have to slow down a little and dig into everybody a little bit more. That’s really where I put most of the focus.” Johnson’s longtime producing partner, producer Ram Bergman, offers, “For Rian it was always about the characters, and he started from there. He was able to come up with a story that was powerful and emotional and goes in an unexpected way. The story is what is true for the characters; it takes them on a journey that feels real.” The presence of strong females in The Last Jedi appealed to Johnson’s sensibilities. He relates, “One of the first things that Kathy told me when she asked me if I’d be interested in doing this was that the lead character was a girl named Rey. I was instantly into that; it just felt right. Leia was the first female figure that girls and women could look up to, and seeing how much it meant to them, Carrie Fisher was very conscious of that and held that with her. She felt a responsibility to make Leia great.” Continuing, he says, “Now, in addition to Leia and Rey, we have the new characters of Rose and Admiral Holdo. In this movie there are a lot of really interesting strong and powerful and weak and conflicted and good and bad female characters. I got to work with a lot of amazing actresses, like Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. There are a lot of kick-ass women in this movie, which is pretty great.” The relationship between Rey and Luke Skywalker was an element of the story that Johnson had to work out as writer. “Rey has her expectation of Luke when she shows up at the island,” says Johnson. “But the first thing I had to really figure out was what Luke’s deal is. Why is he on that island? Because I know he’s not a coward and I know he’s not hiding. I know if he’s there, he’s taken himself out of the fight, and he must have a reason for doing that. What is that reason?

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“And I worked and worked and thought and thought until finally I got to something where I could put myself in his shoes. That’s kind of cryptic, I guess, but it allowed me to understand Luke in this movie. I understand where he is and I understand how he got there through the events. Now, let’s see what happens when Rey comes into his life and messes everything up basically by showing up on his doorstep with a lightsaber,” Johnson concludes.

THE CAST That time has come, and audiences will delight in seeing the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as General Leia, Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Oscar Isaac as Poe, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and with Joonas Suotamo, now playing Chewbacca. The Last Jedi also introduces three main new characters: Rose, a Resistance maintenance worker played by Kelly Marie Tran; a shady character of dubious loyalties played by Academy Award® winner Benicio Del Toro; and a prominent Resistance officer, Vice Admiral Holdo, played by two-time Academy Award nominee Laura Dern. Rounding out the saga’s ensemble cast is Golden Globe® nominee Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke; Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o as Maz; Tony Award® nominee Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux; and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the actors and the characters they play in The Last Jedi. LUKE SKYWALKER Mark Hamill After tragedy destroyed his attempt to rebuild the Jedi Knights, Luke Skywalker vanished from the galaxy and lived a humble existence on the planet Ahch-To. Now, the Resistance needs the reclusive hero to help thwart the efforts of the evil First Order. For fan icon Mark Hamill, who started playing Luke Skywalker in 1977, returning to the Millennium Falcon set on Star Wars: The Last Jedi was “bittersweet.” “Everywhere you looked, these memories come flooding back,” Hamill says. “It’s like going to your old high school or the house you lived in in sixth grade. The detail’s absolutely perfect. It’s just as I remember it. I climbed up and down the ladder, got in the hold where we stowed away, and sat in the cockpit with my grown children and wife. Later I slipped away and got really choked up. This is a moment, and it’ll be gone.”

Informing where we find Luke at the beginning of the story, Hamill says, “It’s a direct continuation of The Force Awakens, so the final moment is the first time you see him

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in The Last Jedi. It’s very ambiguous. Rey offers him the lightsaber, and he just stares at her.”

Luke and Rey’s meeting portends some serious events for them, but first they have to get past their first impressions. “Rey has based her assessment of Luke on this great mythology that’s been built up,” says Hamill. “At some point, people doubt he’s a real person. Because of the gravity of the situation, the urgency of the situation, she doesn’t have the luxury of getting to know him and relax and exchange ideas. She needs him and wants to enlist his help and abilities towards her cause. And that’s the conflict. Luke’s in a much different place than we’ve ever seen him before.” Continuing, he adds, “He’s disillusioned. He’s renounced the idea of the Jedi Order. Luke always represented hope and optimism. And now, here he is pessimistic, disillusioned and demoralized.” Working with director Rian Johnson proved to be a positive experience for Hamill, who says, “I trust him. There’s no one more deserving of trust than Rian Johnson. If you look at his movies, each is different than the last. You can’t pigeonhole him and say, ‘That’s the kind of film he makes.’ That’s what will happen with The Last Jedi. It’s so different in many ways, subtle ways, than the other Episodes, and yet it is satisfying in delivering what the fans want to see as well.” GENERAL LEIA ORGANA Carrie Fisher On the run from dark forces determined to crush freedom in the galaxy, Leia Organa leads the dwindling Resistance fleet. A living legend, General Leia draws upon her decades of experience to fight against the First Order. Production had wrapped a few months prior to Carrie Fisher’s tragic and untimely death in December 2016, which makes Leia’s story in The Last Jedi all the more poignant. Still leading the Resistance, Leia, the general and rebel princess, has been central to the Star Wars universe from the get-go. Says Ram Bergman: “Carrie had a meaningful role in the film even before her untimely death, but now there will be so much more weight to some very emotional scenes. She challenged Rian every day, but they had a great partnership. Everyone will be so proud of her performance.” Interviewed during production, Fisher said that she found her character in a different state this time around. “Leia’s exhausted. She goes from being someone who’s shooting guns and swinging across chasms to killing Jabba the Hutt, to being serious, worrying a lot. She has a lot more responsibility and there’s a lot more reason for her to be exhausted.” But getting to see Mark Hamill again as Luke Skywalker was a highlight for Fisher (and Leia). “I always think of him as Luke,” said Fisher. “Mark and I have a very sibling-like relationship. Our relationships in the movie are very much like our relationships in life.

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We take care of each other, in a way.” In the movie, Leia develops an interesting relationship with Poe, played by Oscar Isaac. “Poe is Leia’s protégé, and in a way she thinks of him as Han, which is both the good news and the bad news,” explained Fisher. “He’s dominating and he doesn’t listen to her. She’s trying to train him. We have some moments together.” When asked what Star Wars means to her, Fisher offered, “For me, it’s about family. That’s what is so powerful about it. I go to Comic-Con and meet a lot of these people and it’s very powerful for them. They’re showing the films to their children and their grandchildren. They’re sharing something that moved them as a child. That’s personal. I’ve watched a lot of that over the years, like people coming in with babies that have the Princess Leia outfit on. That’s the thing that makes it so powerful for a lot of people. It’s an identifying universe and something that creates a community. Anything that does that can heal people. You can have that thing in common and find others. I don’t know that it saves lives, but I know it improves them.” KYLO REN Adam Driver After a stinging defeat by the scavenger Rey, Kylo Ren refocuses his sinister efforts on destroying the Resistance. But even though he is growing more powerful in the dark side of the Force, Kylo Ren still has much to prove to his shadowy mentor, Supreme Leader Snoke. For Adam Driver, his return to play Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi delivered an unexpected fan moment. As he explains, “There are times in the shooting of it that as much as you try to deny that you’re making a Star Wars movie, it inevitably seeps in. You see a TIE fighter, and it’s hard to ignore that it’s a TIE fighter. The biggest moment for me when I realized I was doing a Star Wars movie, even though we already did one, was Mark Hamill. It was just surreal to see him. For me, on the outside, growing up with those movies, it’s not lost on me how unique it is because I’ve attached so much meaning to those movies that have nothing to do with him. But to suddenly be in a film with him was very surreal. He is just cool. There’s not a more elegant way to say it.” Driver was impressed with how writer/director Rian Johnson developed Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. “How Rian moved the story along for my character, I thought, was really unexpected,” Driver says. “That’s very generic, but that’s the truth. The fact that Kylo Ren kills his father at the end of The Force Awakens was not a psychology that Rian skipped over in the sense of how that affects someone. And in a way, it grounded it more in reality. You can’t deny that the event happened, so he didn’t skip over it and actually made the circumstances of it real. For me, that was helpful.” Offering some insight into Kylo Ren’s nature, Driver says, “Kylo Ren is someone who’s becoming more entrenched in his ideas, almost to a religious fervor, and is so certain that he’s doing the right thing. Something about the youthfulness of him was not lost

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in Rian’s writing.” He adds, “I don’t know that he ever comes to terms with the relationship of the light and dark within him. I think it’s still always an internal battle. That’s the thing that Rian understands in his characters—that people are never all one thing, even though we’d like them to be. There’s a lot of grey in the world and especially within ourselves. That’s an interesting thing that I find fun about playing that character. He’s never all one thing.” As to Kylo Ren’s relationship with Rey in The Last Jedi, Driver comments, “In all the epic drama that’s going on, at the center of it are these two people who are on opposite sides but divided by something that’s a very thin line—the dark and light that exists in both of them. They’re not far off from each other, and in a way they’re together in this journey, where maybe they both feel alone. They’re almost each other’s opposite in a great way.” Johnson admits that Kylo Ren was the character that he was the “most excited about getting into and writing.” He continues, “In the first Star Wars films, Darth Vader was a great villain, but he was never someone that you identified with. You identified with Luke’s relationship to him. So Vader was the monster. He was the scary father, and then he was the father you had to reconcile with. Whereas with Kylo, it’s almost like Rey and Kylo are two halves of the protagonist. Rey is the light, and Kylo is the dark. And with Kylo, again, this is all about the transition from adolescence into adulthood. Kylo is that anger of adolescence, and wanting to reject your parents, and wanting to break away, which, to some extent, all of us can identify with as much as we can identify with the hopeful Rey looking up at the stars from her planet.” Johnson adds, “Adam is one of my favorite young actors, and working through cracking open such an enigmatic and intense character with Adam was incredibly rewarding. His choices on screen always feel honest but always surprise you.” REY Daisy Ridley With the power of the Force awakening inside her, Rey travels to the hidden world of Ahch-To to find Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi Master in the galaxy and the last hope of the Resistance. Hoping to find the hero of legend, Rey discovers instead a man who challenges her expectations. Star Wars: The Force Awakens introduced audiences to a new central hero—Rey, a young woman from the remote desert island planet Jakku. The Force Awakens allowed audiences to experience the hero’s journey through a fresh set of eyes, bringing a new perspective. For Johnson, Rey’s motivations were another aspect of getting the story right. “Rey, at the end of The Force Awakens, has been thrown into this big adventure and been

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sent on a mission to find Luke,” reminds Johnson. “ She has a desire for connection to her past and some notion that there are answers there that she can get. I think she probably expects there are some answers about who she is, and that’s really what she is on a quest to find out. Not just meaning who her parents are or where she comes from, but meaning what’s her place in all of this? When she shows up on that island, there’s part of her, and there’s a big part of us, that expects that she’s going to get that information from Luke.” And how does that meeting with Luke affect Rey? “I think she’s learning not to believe the hype,” offers Ridley. “Even on Jakku, in the backend of nowhere in space, she’s heard stories about Luke. And he makes her realize it’s not all as rosy as it seems to be. Good people make bad choices, and bad people can make good choices. She’s learning her own strengths and weaknesses and continuing to learn about the human psyche, because she hasn’t really had relationships with people before.” Ridley continues, “Rey doesn’t see herself as this powerful being, and seeing Luke is a reflection of what people see her as. They talk about her potential, and she doesn’t really feel it. But she does start to come around. She tries to move forward and do the right thing, like she has always done.” Working with both Mark Hamill and Adam Driver on The Last Jedi was “great,” according to Ridley. “They’re both very different,” elaborates the actress. “Mark’s a talker and Adam isn’t. Mark has lived a crazy life. A lot of his life has been influenced by Star Wars, and he’s so well-known for it. He’s older; he’s a father, so his energy is steadier. Adam is incredible. He has this amazing depth of emotion. I don’t know anyone else like him. He’s amazing to work with. He’s very generous.” Describing how it feels to be playing a heroic woman on screen, Ridley says, “I like that I never questioned being a heroic woman in a film, and that’s thanks to my upbringing. My mom’s always worked; the women I grew up around always worked and were inspirational. So it’s weird because the way people reacted made me question more than I did. It’s a great role but not just because she’s a woman. That’s how simple it was to me. But others were like, ‘This is a big deal,’ clearly. But it’s exciting to be a part of that. And I’m like, let’s continue. This is how it should be.” “Daisy is an extraordinary young actor,” remarks Johnson. “She brought a depth and emotion to the character that I could not have imagined. I discovered that so much that people respond to in the character of Rey comes from Daisy: her tenacity, her bravery, her humor, her depth, so many things that make little kids want to be Rey, those things are Daisy.” Summing up, Ridley offers, “Rian has written a story that people won’t expect. Everybody gets their moment to progress. And even though it’s the second episode in this series, it’s its own thing without just leading onto the next one, which is great. Some of the stuff that happens will surprise people. “

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FINN John Boyega Finn commits himself to the cause of fighting his former allies in the First Order, and with the Resistance readying a daring stand against their First Order pursuers, Finn prepares to do his part in the battle for freedom. Finn’s defining act in The Force Awakens was leaving the First Order, and he was with the good guys for the rest of the story, but the truth is he never joined the Resistance. Says Johnson, “Finn is motivated by personal emotion, not by ideological causes. His bravery in The Force Awakens is to save his friend, not because he cares about her cause or Poe’s army. In this film we’re going to dig deeper in and see what he really believes in when the rubber meets the road.” Offering more insight as to where we find his character emotionally now, Boyega says, “Finn has evolved from The Force Awakens. He’s more aware about his part in this story. He’s more affected by the events that happened before and brings that same energy and struggle into The Last Jedi. But at the same time, he’s still confused as to where he belongs. Although he’s now matured, more of a fighter, there are still some loose ends in terms of his character development.” In The Last Jedi, Finn develops a new relationship with a character named Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran. Describing the relationship, Boyega says, “It is a relationship that is different from Finn and Rey. It’s something he doesn’t have time to consider, in terms of both of them, just two different people. But it is the same kind of bond we saw in The Force Awakens when two people who don’t necessarily have a decision when it comes to being together and being on the fight together are put together by fate. Finn and Rose make a really good team.” For Boyega, working with writer/director Rian Johnson was a positive experience. “Rian’s really great,” relates the actor. “He is really talented. To see another director’s take on a story doesn’t distract from what Star Wars is. At the same time, we have Rian’s take on character, which stands out to me more than anything else. The individual stories of these characters are elevated and made fresh and new. Rian pays attention to detail. His notes are specific and honest. And at the same time, he has a sense of collaboration. I feel the best directors know how to collaborate, and he does just that.” About Boyega, Johnson says: “John’s charisma sparks off the screen, but he came to Finn in this movie with some real solidity and strength, and a bit of swagger in his step. He finds an emerging strength in Finn that I loved watching develop.”

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POE DAMERON Oscar Isaac Now that the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance has escalated into open warfare, Poe shines as a daring squadron leader. He is decidedly brave, but his hotshot antics wear the patience of not only the enemy but the Resistance commands as well. According to Isaac, The Last Jedi is covering some new ground that relates to his character, Poe Dameron. “It’s exploring certain thematic things that haven’t been seen before about what it means to resist and what it means to win,” says the actor. “There are some very truthful messages about power and the nature of power and those seeking power and how easily it can go one way or another.” He adds, “It’s finding out what a hero is. What it is to be a hero and what it is to be a leader. You get more specific and find the nuance in the situation, and how you can explore those themes. It’s a war. They’re in the midst of a war; it is life and death, and the decisions made affect so many. Especially on Poe’s side, which is focused on the Resistance.” Offering some insight into Poe and where we find him in this film, Isaac says, “In The Force Awakens, we get to meet Poe briefly. He’s a man on a mission, a man of action, and he’s committed to this thing he has to do: He has to find Luke Skywalker. We get briefly introduced to him, and he meets Finn, and they spark. But that’s all you get from him, except that he has a smart mouth. That continues in this film, but there’s a lot more conflict. He finds himself in a more precarious situation. He’s a man of action; he wants to help, to save the Resistance, to fight the First Order. But his old heroics aren’t necessarily what they need in this moment.” Describing how Poe changes and develops over the course of the story, Isaac says, “Poe is learning to not just be a soldier but to be a leader. Not just be the heroic pilot but perhaps learn to be a general. And that’s a shift. He’s a man on a mission. You give him a mission, and he’ll complete it. But seeing the bigger picture, knowing when not to engage, that’s what he has to learn.” Isaac offers an interesting analogy when it comes to his experience working with writer/director Rian Johnson. “Working with Rian reminds me of a West Coast jazz musician, giving a little direction here and there,” comments Isaac. “He’s very laid back, but very sharp. He knows his scale. He knows what he’s playing. And he’s open. He’s open to trying things. He’s willing to explore scenes with me, and often we end up going back to what the script says, but at least we get to explore.” Says Johnson: “Oscar is like a reincarnation of my favorite old movie stars; he has that old school magnetism paired with insane acting chops. Poe is a straight-up, good-guy hero, and although he gets put through the wringer in this film, because of Oscar you never lose faith that he’s going to come out the other end all the better for it.”

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MAZ KANATA Lupita Nyong’o The destruction of her castle has forced Maz to become more mobile and take a more hands-on role in the turbulent criminal underworld. Using everything at her disposal, Maz offers assistance in the struggle against the First Order. Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o returns to the Star Wars family as Maz Kanata, the motion-capture character she first brought to life in The Force Awakens. SUPREME LEADER SNOKE Andy Serkis The shadowy commander of the First Order, Supreme Leader Snoke emerges from the shadows in an attempt to seize victory. The talented, versatile Andy Serkis returns to the role of the über-controlling villain Supreme Leader Snoke. In a move that is sure to delight fans, Snoke is no longer a hologram and reveals himself, offering a good look at his throne room as well. GENERAL ARMITAGE HUX Domhnall Gleeson Though the Starkiller Base has been destroyed, Hux’s command to fire a devastating weapon has eradicated the New Republic in a single strike. From the bridge of the Finalizer, Hux commands the pursuit of the Resistance. Domhnall Gleeson is back, reprising his role of the villainous General Hux. For Gleeson, playing a villain has its rewards. “It’s fun to play a villain. It’s a bit different for me. It’s not something I’ve done before. Hux is pretty unapologetic about wanting what he wants. You don’t see him with his dog in the evenings, relaxing, having a smoke. He’s pretty full on, but that’s part of his charm.” When asked if Hux is an uptight character, Gleeson responds, “You say uptight, I say ordered. I think it depends on your perspective. My feeling generally is that individuality scares him. The First Order is about crushing that. It’s called the First Order for a reason. It’s about keeping things in the right place. So I think that’s his perspective. That’s what he strives for because anything different freaks him out.” Offering insight on where Hux stands in the First Order hierarchy, Gleeson says, “Hux occupies a strange territory in that he’s not in between Snoke and Kylo Ren. It’s more Snoke, then Ren and Hux underneath, operating different arms of the body of the First Order. They have very different powers. They’re good at different things. There’s wildness about Ren that you see in the first one when he loses it, which Hux doesn’t

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have. Hux is more disciplined. I think Hux has his eye on the throne, and Ren is a challenge to that. I think he’s scared of Ren and hates Ren but respects him in a strange way because he’s powerful. All of that is in the mix. Power is all Hux really cares about.” C-3PO Anthony Daniels The threat of the First Order is of great concern to the ever-worried protocol droid C-3PO, but he faithfully and loyally continues to serve General Leia Organa. The fan-favorite C-3PO has always had his place in the world of Star Wars. Though not often listened to with any seriousness, C-3PO is a voice of reason. According to Anthony Daniels, who once again brings the gold droid back to life, “He’s there as a little foil to all the drama that happens. Also to be a voice of humanity, which strangely enough coming out of a metal character, speaks louder than if a human character in the film said it.” For Daniels, suiting up as C-3PO is a given, since the actor has been in every Star Wars movie since the inception of the saga, but what he takes away from it is a gift. “The force of the weight of the adoration, the liking, the love of the fans really makes it a worthwhile job,” says the actor. “It makes me feel good when people come up and say, ‘Thank you for my childhood.’ That I’m a part of something they experienced as a kid and it’s stayed with them for whatever reason. Nothing to do with me, mostly to do with George’s bedrock story. But I now get that phrase: ‘Thank you for my childhood.’ It’s something people carry with them now, forever. And now it’s being passed on. Three generations get it.” CAPTAIN PHASMA Gwendoline Christie Clad in her distinctive metallic armor, Captain Phasma commands the First Order’s legions of troopers. Having survived the destruction of Starkiller Base, she has a personal score to settle with the Resistance. Gwendoline Christie reprises her role of Captain Phasma, the cold-as-ice First Order officer who is Star Wars’ first major female villain. In approaching the role, Christie states that she is most interested in who Captain Phasma truly is and why she behaves the way she does. “I talked to Rian a lot and thought a lot about what sort of person would be driven to behave in this way,” the actress comments. “To have such focus. Such vengeance. Such lack of emotion to behave in such a rigid, driven, focused manner. To be so governed by a practical sense of what she believes is right. And where this cold hatred of Finn comes from. Hate is a strong emotion. It’s not like dislike or irritation. It’s incredibly strong and incredibly rooted. We thought perhaps this woman behaves in this way, and it tends to be born

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out of fear.” She adds, “We see more of Captain Phasma, but we still maintain the mystery. I think it’s exciting to keep that sense of mystery. We’re still divining who she is and what motivates her.” Relating how the story and characters have developed in The Last Jedi, Christie says, “I feel like the story has moved on. It does reveal more about our human nature. It has a reflection of the world around us in a moral and political sense. But it isn’t at all heavy-handed. It’s beautiful and magical. It feels richer. The stories are more established. We know more about these new characters. We’re now invested in them, watching them grow as their lives change and expand. And with the characters we know and love, they continue to develop, and we learn lessons from the lives they lead and the sacrifices they make.” ROSE TICO Kelly Marie Tran Part of the support crew that keeps the Resistance starfighters flying, Rose has hated the First Order since she was a child. Now able to fight back against the enemy, Rose keeps her focus on her mission. When Kelly Marie Tran landed the role of Rose Tico on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, keeping the secret of her role was difficult, especially when she was bursting with excitement. “I found out that I got the role in November of 2015,” says Tran. “I moved to London immediately after that, in December, and couldn’t tell anybody where I was going or what I was actually doing until February 2016. So I told everyone that I was in Canada working on an indie movie and just lied to everybody I knew.” Says Johnson of his choice to play Rose, “Although each of the characters in Star Wars reflect some part of how we all feel, or at least how we’d like to feel, for me Rose is the closest to how 10-year-old me would have felt if he woke up in this universe. She doesn’t belong here, but she’s going to be brave and do her best. Luckily we found the perfect embodiment of that spirit with Kelly Marie Tran. I love her to death, and I’m thrilled to introduce audiences to both Rose and Kelly.” Describing her character, Tran offers, “Rose is a member of the Resistance, and she has an older sister who’s also in the Resistance and is so cool. She’s a gunner, and she’s essentially what most people would think of as a hero. But Rose is the opposite of that. She works in maintenance, and she’s a nobody. Her sister’s always been the cool one that’s been out there in the forefront of the action. Rose has always been the one behind pipes, fixing things.” Continuing, she adds, “Then something happens in the beginning of the movie that pulls Rose into the journey. She meets Finn and he is a big deal to her. It’s like meeting a childhood hero. Rose has always been someone who has been on the bottom of the

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food chain in the Resistance. And here is Finn, someone who, for her, represents why she’s there. So they meet and go on a series of crazy adventures together.” Tran’s character adds another heroine to Star Wars’ cadre of strong females. Explaining how she feels about joining their ranks, the actress says, “It feels like two different things. It feels so exciting that I get to be this person that I hope people look up to. And on the other side, it feels like a lot of responsibility. You just want to do it right. And you want to do the franchise right, because so many generations love this thing.” ADMIRAL HOLDO Laura Dern The commanding officer of a Resistance cruiser, Vice Admiral Holdo has been a trusted ally of General Leia Organa for years. Holdo radiates a quiet confidence with her measured words, but will it be enough to light the encroaching darkness? Laura Dern never gave much thought to the idea that her character, Vice Admiral Holdo, would become iconic when she signed on for Star Wars: The Last Jedi until she heard someone ask how the character’s hair color would work on the doll. “A doll. Then you realize that you are serving something greater, as my childhood was served,” says Dern. “You’re not only serving storytelling but iconic and archetypal characters. I think about my daughter being a 10-year-old girl and the idea that she’s going to have heroines in this story who all look very different and have very different qualities and natures, and are all fierce.” Describing her character, Dern says, “Vice Admiral Holdo is an unbelievably delicious challenge, thanks to Rian Johnson’s writing. What’s really interesting is that you don’t know where you stand and don’t know who she is. You know she was trained by Leia and trained by the Resistance, but she is in fact mercurial, and you’re not sure what you’re going to get. And as the story unfolds, it gets more and more questionable.” Says Johnson: “I wanted to find an actor who would defy our expectations of what the qualities of leadership look like, and take us by surprise. Besides being one of the loveliest people on the planet, Laura exudes a very special sort of strength that brought all those elements together.” It is clear that Dern enjoyed working with Rian Johnson. “What’s amazing about Rian is that on a film like Star Wars, you don’t, as an actor, expect to have a process like you do with other filmmakers on independent films,” comments Dern. “I’ve spent my life having different experiences and always have been very fortunate to work with directors who want to mine the material and find more. I think audiences will be thrilled because it’s in keeping with what J.J. Abrams set up with a return back to the original three films, which are character-based stories that have simplicity to them, within all that surrounds us.”

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DJ Benicio Del Toro DJ is an enigmatic figure whose tattered, threadbare clothes and lackadaisical attitude conceal a sharp mind and expert skills. There is a rich tradition of scoundrels in Star Wars, and DJ, played by Benicio Del Toro, both plays to and against our expectations of the more dubious characters in the galaxy. Like all actors joining Star Wars, there was a thrilling element to the ride he was about to embark upon. “You’ve been drafted by a winning team,” says Del Toro, “and they allow creativity to grow in front of the camera. Creating a character like this is really fun.” Adds Johnson, “I felt very lucky that Benicio signed on for the part. He’s charming but also rides that wonderful line where you’re not exactly sure if you trust him.” Describing DJ as “very cool,” Del Toro elaborates, “He’s a cynic. He believes that good guys and bad guys are just basically the same. And he’s a profiteer. He profits from the eternal war of good and evil. He’s an opportunist but can get you out of a jam, and get you in a jam. We play that line of whether he is good or bad. We don’t know. But he’s a mercenary, really.” Del Toro worked closely with writer/director Rian Johnson to develop the character. “I had ideas and ran them by Rian,” the actor explains. “And Rian is a fun director that way. You can get creative with him. We did some things. We wanted to build something that was unique for this film. At the same time, DJ has to be both repulsive and attractive. So you juggle that and hope some things work better than others. But I have faith in Rian.” Offering insight on the relationship between Finn (played by John Boyega) and DJ, Del Toro says, “DJ’s mantra is live free and don’t join. So that’s basically his attitude, and he tries to show Finn that even the good guys are dirty at times and perhaps corrupt as well. He’s like this little devil on Finn’s shoulder that basically is trying to make him see a different side or different approach to living in the galaxy.” CHEWBACCA Joonas Suotamo Faithful first mate and co-pilot Chewbacca now stands by Rey’s side and accompanies her on her quest to find Luke Skywalker. When Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo stepped into Peter Mayhew’s shoes to play Chewbacca, he found they were very big shoes—but he was up for the challenge. “You must interpret it your own way,” he says. “But I think we’ve done a good job, everyone

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involved, in making the suit the best it can be, and I’m trying to do the best I can do to be true to the character’s past history and bring in new things when appropriate.” The former basketball player–turned actor adds, “I turn into a very happy person whenever I’m in the costume. When everyone sees Chewie, they don’t see me, they see Chewie. And that means I’ve done my job inside the suit. I want to give people a glimpse of what they’ve seen of Chewie before. That’s my goal.”

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI In undertaking one of the most ambitious set builds in cinema history, Academy Award®–winning production designer Rick Heinrichs was tasked with designing and creating The Last Jedi environments in which the action takes place. Construction was on a massive scale. Heinrichs was responsible for creating an extraordinary number of sets—around 120—utilizing all stages and the backlots at Pinewood, as well as stages at Longcross Studios, two foreign filming locations (Dubrovnik, Croatia, and the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland), and plate shoots in Iceland and Bolivia, all to be shot over 100 days. “I was told that our production built the most sets of any film that has ever shot in the U.K.,” Rian Johnson offers. “I’m not sure if that’s true, but halfway through production it sure felt like it. When we wrapped a set we would have to review the dailies immediately, because the set was invariably getting torn down the next day to make room for another set. Rick Heinrichs worked logistic miracles, and watching it all put together, I think it pays off. Even the most fantastic spaces in our movie feel grounded and real, because they literally are.” Johnson informs that there were many early conversations about the design of the film, and specifically about what makes something feel like Star Wars. “After going around a bit, we decided to just hop in and start designing some stuff and see if it feels right,” the director says. “There were designers on the team who homed in on the Star Wars feel of it all instantly, so we tended to gravitate towards those artists. Kevin Jenkins, who is the lead designer with ILM, and James Klein were two of the guys who were just hugely instrumental in delivering the Star Wars elements in the design. It’s an interesting balance to try and strike, designing new things and having them feel like they could be on a box from a toy in 1977.” Prior to production, Heinrichs was able to immerse himself in the spectacular library of visual reference at Skywalker Ranch. “It was an incredibly amazing introduction to the world, to see all the original artwork firsthand,” he says. He then set about creating a huge reference library of his own to share with his team, giving them the opportunity to research and respect the original aesthetic created by George Lucas while exploring new concepts and imagining the new worlds, planets and environments envisaged by Johnson.

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“This is without doubt the biggest endeavor, the largest number of sets, the most intricate construction and detail per set I have worked on,” comments Heinrichs. But in spite of the huge amount of work, he loved the experience. “Rian’s a dream to work with. He’s a writer/director, so first of all these are all ideas that come from him, and they are great ideas, both visually and narratively, and at the same time character driven. He has all that going on at the same time and is a sweet and funny guy to work with.” THE SETS Familiar sets include the Millennium Falcon, the Resistance Cruiser, the Fighter Hangar and the Mine Control Center, all organic, acquired, born out of necessity and in stark contrast to the cold, angular world inhabited by the First Order, such as the Star Destroyer, the Mega Destroyer and Kylo’s Chambers. Says Rick Heinrichs, “We were able to extract our understanding of what the central design aesthetic was for the Rebel fleet and apply that to the Resistance, and take the central character and form of how the Empire appeared, and apply that to the First Order.” It was not simply a case of making it bigger but a question of shape for the filmmakers. “There are some simple descriptive form elements that Lucas used from the beginning of sharp, shiny, black and reflective for the Empire, and associations with old things like WWII bombers and a comfortable familiarity for the Resistance,” Heinrichs explains. New environments and worlds created specifically for The Last Jedi include the expanded Jedi Island Ahch-To, Canto Bight, the planet Crait and Snoke’s Throne Room. The Jedi Island was built across Pinewood and Longcross Studios, as well as on location on the west coast of Ireland, all needing to match seamlessly with elements shipped from one place to another as the schedule and action dictated. The island was entirely drawn from Skellig Michael, where The Force Awakens had shot the final sequences with Luke Skywalker, both in terms of its natural features and the emotional experience of the place. The Force Awakens production designer Rick Carter had found Skellig Michael, and Rian Johnson had long conversations with him about his impressions of the island. “But,” he explains, “it wasn’t until I went myself and actually walked up the stone steps that I really got it. There’s a truly mystical feeling to the place, it’s hard to describe. It’s like you’re walking around not on dirt and rocks but on a giant creature. You’re aware of the environment and landscape the way you would be of a living thing.” That visit informed Johnson’s process thereafter. Everything was designed to be in harmony with that environment. Johnson continues, “We avoided elaborate structures. I wanted everything to feel like a piece of the place itself.” While the Jedi Village was to be built on a cliff top on the west coast of Ireland, practical, logistical and safety reasons made some filming impossible there, so the set, a series of beehive huts based on the Skellig Michael huts where the monks had lived, were at first constructed on the Pinewood backlot. Once the scenes had been completed there, the set was taken down, shipped and rebuilt on the Sybil Head cliff.

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The Last Jedi team reconstructed the interior of the Millennium Falcon, which had been impeccably put together for The Force Awakens by art director Mark Harris on a Pinewood stage, giving The Last Jedi filmmakers the entire exterior of the Millennium Falcon, on its Landing Pad, at the base of the Longcross Studios incline. THE CASINO So much of what defines the look and feel of the original trilogy is a worn-in grubbiness, and realizing luxury in the Star Wars universe proved to be an interesting task. Says Johnson, “Finn and Rose have an adventure in Canto Bight, a Monte Carlo–like city that had to dazzle and seduce us. The visual development of that world was by far the most involved design process in the movie, and Rick Heinrichs and his team worked to fuse visual cues from Star Wars into an entirely new feeling of wealth and opulence.” Built on the 007 Stage at the U.K.’s Pinewood Studios, the Canto Bight Casino was one of The Last Jedi’s biggest sets, as well as one of the most challenging. Supervising art director Chris Lowe explains, “We had to create a very large cavernous gambling space with a bar in it for the action sequence. The scale of it was driven by the sequence itself and the scale of the fathiers, the creatures specific to the scene. We used lots of mirrors to throw the scale and keep the distance going.” Rick Heinrichs speaks to the inspiration and the design: “We were going for an extremely extravagant, over-the-top version of Monte Carlo. We used a lot of architectural references to earlier Star Wars films, like columns and arches, but with more ovular, circular, softer shapes than what we’ve seen in the other films. I had read that Ralph McQuarrie, when he was working on Jabba’s Palace, realized that if he kept with rectilinear forms it would look like a black castle from some 1930s swashbuckling movie, but if you keep to soft deco shapes, there’s a real opportunity to come up with something fresh, an opulent quality, which would convey the idea of fun and beauty. That’s what we were aiming for.” In the end, the 16-week build was so large that it had to be split across two stages at Pinewood, with the exterior built at Longcross and the medieval city of Dubrovnik standing in for the city of Canto Bight, where the Casino is situated and where the action spills out. The Casino is an excellent example of how departments work together to create something extraordinary. Hundreds of extras dressed to the impeccable nines by costume designer Michael Kaplan, and incredible creatures, created and puppeteered by Neal Scanlan and his team, converged on these huge and amazing sets built by Rick Heinrichs and rigged for action by SFX supervisor Chris Corbould and stunt coordinator Rob Inch. Acknowledges Johnson: “It was a multi-department extravaganza!”

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THE PLANET CRAIT Another new environment is the planet Crait, a mineral planet, and Johnson had a very specific visual idea for its look from the very start. “It would be white, like a thin white layer of salt actually, but like a topsoil,” says the director. “And then under that would be this ruby red sort of crystal foundation. It just felt like it gave incredible possibilities in terms of graphic design for an environment that we hadn’t seen before.” Building Crait on a Pinewood stage and tying the landscape of the planet in with a later plate shoot on the salt flats of Bolivia, Heinrichs worked with Johnson’s vision to give Crait an igneous layer of red mineral covered over by salt flakes to give it a white canvas. When the surface is disturbed, the red shows to give this great red and white design graphic, which is the character of the planet Crait. SNOKE’S THRONE ROOM In The Force Awakens, audiences were introduced to Snoke as a hologram, without a sense of his environment. So in The Last Jedi, the filmmakers were tasked with creating that from scratch, using Snoke’s position of authority as the inspiration. They wanted to convey both a ceremonial and observatory feel. Heinrichs returned to some amazing early Ralph McQuarrie images, showing Darth Vader sitting on a throne in what looks like a hell environment with stalactites erupting from the floor and a cool light bathing him. He applied that central idea to Snoke, but in a more ritualistic way. “Something that befitted his position as well as something you might expect on this Mega Destroyer,” explains Heinrichs. Johnson had also envisaged red hanging drapery, a device for seeing through space to other places. “We ended up with something that was both very architectural and vigorous looking, with columns, and the hallway leading up to Snoke’s Throne,” says Heinrichs. “There’s an Oz aspect to it all, the idea of the color red and how it conveys both authority and bloodthirstiness, and overall giving it that hellish aspect.” Within that, the filmmakers played with the idea of the Praetorian Guards, dressed in red, almost disappearing into the background and appearing only as needed. The positive effects of working on practical sets was not lost on the actors. “The sets were absolutely amazing. Stunning. You forget that you’re standing on a set,” enthuses Daisy Ridley. “The cave we shot in was just amazing. I don’t know how it feels to not have that. It’s just brilliant. It does make it easier, because we’re there doing it. And with the costumes, the whole thing is amazing.” One of the elements that Adam Driver enjoyed most about his experience on the film was the production detail. “Everything’s mostly practical, and Rian took the set that was set up in The Force Awakens to the next level,” praises Driver. “Star Wars is so much a part of our daily vocabulary around the world that there are just certain things that are taken for granted. Everyone understands that people are wearing masks, but we have to still make it real for ourselves and have it make sense and be personal. And

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Rian did a good job, I think, in erasing everything he knew about the original Star Wars and The Force Awakens and starting fresh, and that starts with the costumes and the sets.” Being a Star Wars fan and acting on the detailed sets can be a distraction, as Boyega explains, “It’s like a 12-year-old kid that goes to Disneyland, but Disneyland is on level 10. That’s what it’s like, but then you have to do your job because you’re part of it. I’ve tried to do fan stuff and be an actor in the film. I think I’m doing well so far with the balance, but it’s crazy because there’s so much going on. There are major sets on this one and practical effects again. They’ve outdone themselves with the sets they built. It makes me feel like I’m on another planet, which is good.” Laura Dern agrees with Boyega that being surrounded by the amazing craft and detail of the practical sets was hard to ignore when trying to work. “It’s been a really interesting opportunity to remain detached while I’m in the hands of a beautifully authentic director and there’s something enormous happening around us,” says the actress. “The word iconic is used correctly. I’m staring at iconic, archetypal characters and creatures and images from my own childhood. And I’m as in awe as everyone else when I walk on set.”

THE LOCATIONS IRELAND For a few days in September 2015, the unit shot on Skellig Michael to pick up the story where The Force Awakens ends. Of the stunning island situated seven miles out to sea off the southwest coast of Ireland, Rian Johnson says, “It feels like you’ve come to the end of the Earth. There’s something so alien and unearthly about the formations, the scale of everything. It feels and looks like a galaxy far, far away.” However, the inaccessibility of Skellig Michael, together with it being a wildlife preserve (a bird sanctuary with a delicate ecosystem), ruled it out as a filming location for the length of time The Last Jedi crew needed to shoot. So the filmmakers set about finding another location that would match the savage beauty of Skellig Michael that had informed Johnson’s vision of Ahch-To. Notwithstanding an expansive search, the filmmakers found their location within eyesight of Skellig Michael—Sybil Head on Ireland’s west coast. It was an equally stunning location, with a landscape offering the same structure and feel as Skellig Michael. Sybil Head offered a combination of the magnificent, dramatic cliffs, as well as a particular orientation to the sun and the cliff itself so the unit could shoot within the set while being able to see how precariously located in the environment it was, all with a view of the ocean at the same time. Here the art and construction departments reconstructed the beehive-shaped huts shipped over from Pinewood Studios to create the Jedi Village, a cantilevered set atop

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a 600-foot cliff. But it wasn’t just the set that the team was tasked to create, it was also the roads, the facilities and an entire infrastructure to bring a crew the size of a small army to such a remote place. It was a huge and extraordinary endeavor. “I’m still not sure how we did it,” says Johnson, “but it’s testament to the tremendous local craftsmen who worked alongside our crew to give us this visceral experience not only for us but ultimately for the audiences.” Adds supervising art director Chris Lowe, “Logically it was complete lunacy. Filmically it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. The look on everyone’s face when we walked onto the set on the edge of a cliff on that first bright May morning was jaw-dropping. It was clearer than ever that Rian’s vision and Rick’s audacity to put these huts on the side of a mountain was the right thing to do.” Over a two-week period, the unit shot at four other locations along the Wild Atlantic Way, from its northern tip at Malin Head to its southern end at Mizen Head, and at Brow Head and Loop Head along the way. DUBROVNIK For 10 days in March, a splinter unit traveled to shoot in the medieval city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Known as the Pearl of the Adriatic, the old city is situated on the Dalmatian coast in southern Croatia, overlooking the calm blue waters of the Adriatic Sea, and it is arguably one of the world’s most magnificent walled cities. Says Heinrichs, “Star Wars in the past has shot some unearthly natural environments on our planet, and that’s a hallmark of the films, but they rarely go to an urban environment. Canto Bight was one of the biggest challenges for us design-wise and concept-wise from the beginning. I was unsure how we’d take a real environment with architecture that has a familiarity about it and turn that into something that is part of the Star Wars galaxy.” But when the filmmakers looked at Dubrovnik, its polished streets, swooping fortress walls and narrow alleyways offered all the romance that the filmmakers wanted for Finn and Rose’s exotic “To Catch a Thief”–style adventure. The filmmakers were particularly taken with the impeccable reflective quality of the streets, which were built with stacked and dressed stone, and the way the light was bouncing off of everything. Director of photography Steve Yedlin appreciated what a great environment it was to use light to create a very interesting look that was both Star Wars but also innovative and cool looking.

THE CREATURES New worlds and new environments meant creating new creatures to inhabit them. For creature designer Neal Scanlan, even more complex challenges lay ahead of him and his team than The Force Awakens had presented. Tasked with creating 130

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creatures, which play very specific roles in unique moments, and sometimes on location without the safety and security of the studio and control of the elements around them, the team had their work cut out for them. According to Rian Johnson, Neal Scanlan, who designed the special creature effects and was in charge of all the practical creatures, had a huge task on The Last Jedi. “We created a lot of creatures,” says Johnson. “Entering Neal’s workshop was like walking into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. It was my favorite place to go and review stuff because his team would first design these creatures with sketches, and then we would land on a design. Then the design was translated first into a sculpture and then a working puppet that physically could operate. You could get six inches away and look into its eyes, and it looked like a real, living creature. It was just absolutely extraordinary.” Johnson adds, “Neal Scanlan and his team are superstars. Their reverence for the art of creature creation is present in every single one of their works, and it was an honor getting to collaborate with them.” By far, the most demanding work in terms of quantity of creatures was for the Casino scenes. “We’re used to seeing the skullduggery and the grungier side of Star Wars,” says Scanlan, “but less used to seeing the high rollers of the galaxy. It’s been quite a trick to hold on to the Star Wars DNA while taking it to a place where we haven’t been before.” But the final result was highly successful. Inside the Casino reside a vivid array of creatures, some with animatronic heads, while others are mechanical puppets, hand puppets or remote controlled puppets hanging from the ceiling. Reflecting upon stepping onto the Casino set when it was completed, Scanlan says, “It was breathtaking. It’s such a delight. It is the final confirmation at every level. That’s the first time you get to step back and see not only our department, but all the other departments’ aspirations and vision for the film come together. There can’t be many people who didn’t walk on that set and take a breath. From the set to the props, everything about it was incredible. And you’re playing a part in that.” The most impressive creatures designed for The Last Jedi are the fathiers—horse-like creatures with feline features, as well as a touch of lion and owl. Measuring almost 16 feet from the ground to the top of the head, these majestic creatures presented huge challenges animatronically for the movements they were required to make, not least of all the beautifully mechanized face able to provide extraordinary expression. Says Rian Johnson, “When we had the full, finished fathier on set, and the puppeteers brought it to life, I’ve never experienced anything like it. They took this robot covered with latex and rubber and yak hair, and when they worked their magic you could stand three feet away from it, nose to nose, and you’d swear it was a living, breathing thing. It conveyed real emotion.”

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Native to Ahch-To, the porgs created by Scanlan and his team were very much an on- set favorite. A weird but adorable mix of a puffin, an owl and a baby seal, the porg was the creature everyone wanted to take home. Says Scanlan: “Rian told us to look at puffins, and that was a great lead for us. But as we learned more about the film and found out that they have specific moments, it very much informed the process. The design has to be a certain way, otherwise it won’t have the ability to communicate or emote. So it leads you in that direction.” He adds, “That’s true of the caretakers as well, which are also part of the island environment. Again, Rian gave us the initial steer that there was a fishlike quality to them, and maternal, or religious or nun-like. You begin to start to build an idea of how one can translate that into something.” On the planet Crait, the crystal foxes serve a very specific story function in the sequence, but their design came first and foremost from the type of creature that you’d expect to see on a mineral planet where it rains salt. The idea is that they’d evolve with crystalline fur, almost like when you put a stick in sugar water and it forms candy crystals. Explaining the process of creating the crystal foxes, Scanlan says, “We bought a taxidermy form of a fox and created a clay sculpture that we added straw to, to begin to feel how you’d replace hair. Then, it was getting the balance between something that is solid and heavy but remains soft and appealing. I see the crystal fox as predominantly female. There were some beautiful images we found of female foxes. The team assigned to the project worked through three or four iterations of what that might look like. Each time, Rian pushed us towards making them sparkle and be more crystal-like. They did a beautiful job of it in the end, finding the combination between these long, heavy crystals and fine crystals that fit around the muzzle, and working with that as a freeform medium.” Summing up his experience on The Last Jedi, Scanlan says, “I can only describe it as being given the opportunity a second time around. Like the first time around was practice. Now you practiced, and now put that practice into practical and let’s see where we can go. Who knows where the next films will take us? I hope the next directors are as demanding and as understanding as both J.J. and Rian have been. With that kind of creative pulse, the Star Wars fans and films have so much more to come, which will be amazing.”

THE COSTUMES Costume designer Michael Kaplan and his team costumed all the returning and new characters in The Last Jedi with looks that have evolved from The Force Awakens in respect to the characters’ needs. For example, with Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, Kaplan says, “The grand robes we see Luke in at the end of The Force Awakens didn’t seem appropriate for his daily life

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and chores on Ahch-To. While it was necessary that he starts The Last Jedi in the same costume, we very quickly see him going about his daily routines, and the robes would have been too cumbersome to navigate the rocky walkways. So we gave him some work clothes, a parka and a backpack for supplies.” As Rey continues her journey, Kaplan says, “I wanted to create something that would look and feel more appropriate in the environments she’d be traveling to and elements that would work with that. In The Force Awakens, we found her in the desert. Now she has a poncho, something she needs where she’s headed with rain and cooler weather. The colors have changed too for the same environmental reasons, as while the pale colors worked on Jakku, darker colors seemed more appropriate for where she is going. “I didn’t want a big change,” says Kaplan. “She’s finding her inner strength, but she’s still Rey. Just enough change to move her, and her story, along.” The script, of course, also dictates costume changes. Kylo Ren has lost his helmet. Says Kaplan, “I assume it would be difficult to see the emotional changes in Kylo if he’s masked all the time. This is a character with a lot of angst, anger and inner turmoil. I think Rian wanted to see what was going on in his mind through his face.” Sometimes an actor will discover their character during a costume fitting. “That was very true of Benicio Del Toro,” explains Kaplan. “His costume had a big collar that he started hiding behind. Cool boots and gloves, all these things he found a way to use in creating his character.” A question for both the director and Laura Dern was what Admiral Holdo’s look should be. Dern explains, “It was Rian’s vision for Holdo to have an otherworldly quality. He wanted her to feel powerful, physically strong, emotionally strong, but like a prima ballerina would. That was his guiding message to the design of the character, and the design for Michael Kaplan of the clothing. He wanted her in a dress, something that framed her upper body in a feminine but strong way. With the hair and the eyes, he wanted an otherworldly quality but something also iconic and ethereal, maybe sensual and feminine.” Kaplan comments, “We started with a sketch of Holdo in a Resistance uniform, but Rian wanted something different. He wanted her to be more independently dressed, balladic was the word he used, to show off her body, something she could be flirtatious in. A gown but one that had authority and presence. Laura is a dream to dress, she has a great figure, amazing posture and just looks great.” Even Gleeson’s costume evokes the ordered and arrogant General Hux. “My costume buttons up high, so I am forced to stand erect with my head back and look down my nose at people,” explains the actor. “And with the gloves on, I can’t touch people. There’s no willingness to make actual bodily contact with anybody. Hux is like a germaphobe. So all that stuff, and the shoulders and the posture required to keep my body inside those uniforms is great. It’s very effective.”

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The Casino costumes were a massive undertaking. Hundreds were made, each one completely different from the next. They took two-thirds of the entire costume prep time. Just finding all the fabrics was a time-consuming effort: From New York to Los Angeles, from London to Florence, the team sourced the materials used. Once Rian Johnson had decided on a black-and-white theme, Kaplan set about finding prints that would fit into the Star Wars vernacular. “We had a milliner, which I think is a first for Star Wars, as well as jewelry makers and glove makers,” explains Kaplan. For these scenes, Kaplan chose the extras himself, particularly picking interesting, older faces that could belong to the Star Wars universe. “I wanted sophistication, good posture, an exoticism. We were able to design costumes specifically for the individuals we’d chosen.” Peter Swords King, hair and makeup designer, worked very closely with Kaplan to ensure that the costumes and the hair complemented one another on all the unique characters. “Out of the 400 to 500 hairstyles I designed, we only used 60,” says King. “A lot we pushed out because they just weren’t Star Wars-looking enough. They didn’t look intergalactic. They looked too ordinary. We wanted extraordinary, almost impractical, impossible hairstyles and makeup. It took us about six months to get all these styles and looks whittled down.” King and his team also designed subtle prosthetics for the Casino characters. “A lot of people won’t notice them, but they’re there to make people look odd,” says King. “We also got rid of people’s eyebrows. A good third of the women had all their eyebrows blocked out. We didn’t put new ones in. And it just makes them look strange. If you take someone’s eyebrows away, it’s the oddest thing.” He adds, “It was designing with concept designers, scrolling through books, taking influence from the 1960s and ’70s and adapting those. But then, just some really crazy, wacky ideas. It was brilliant fun.”

THE VISUAL EFFECTS As is tradition with Star Wars films, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) utilized its vast array of skills and mastery to provide a seamless mix of cutting-edge visual effects, which when combined with the practical creatures and special effects helped director Rian Johnson achieve his vision for the newest chapter of the Skywalker saga. ILM’s Ben Morris, the film’s visual effects supervisor, comments, “Star Wars is part of film history. In fact, it’s part of popular culture. It’s part of the late 20th century, and now the 21st century. And so, the audience is very savvy about what Star Wars is. We always want to give them something new that will take them to a new place. But there are also visual languages and aesthetics and choreography and action that people respond to as being from the world of Star Wars. So we do have to create the whole

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dynamic of some of these scenes. It’s not something we do all of at the tail end of production. We actually start designing those ideas very early on in production so they can inform how we shoot with the real actors and the real sets.” Featuring over 2000 visual effects shots, the film was shot on anamorphic 35mm film, Arri Alexa and IMAX, and finished in both 2D and Stereo 3D. As previously mentioned, The Last Jedi was shot in real-world locations and on practical sets whenever possible, which gives the settings an authenticity that was sometimes difficult to replicate but also provided ILM’s VFX artists with a ground truth to match into when adding digital set extensions or creating fully digital versions of environments. One such setting that was given a digital enhancement was the cliff on which the Jedi Village sets. The Jedi Village is set on Sybil Head, a 400-500 foot sea cliff face in Ireland. Filmmakers wanted the cliff face extended using visual effects. “What I’ve had to do is go out in a helicopter and shoot plates that will allow us to extend the cliff to at least 1000 feet high,” explains Morris. “That’s been good fun and we’ve been picking up some amazing sunsets as well.” A highlight of the film’s VFX work is the fully rendered CG performance of Snoke. “The director wanted to bring Snoke out of his hologram world and ground him back in reality,” says Morris. “He wanted a character that other characters in the film could actually respond to and actually relate to.” Snoke is represented as an 8-foot tall, photo-real character and animated using on-set performance provided by Andy Serkis. Based on the character’s disfiguration and old age, the VFX team invested heavily in creating subtle details, including anatomically accurate eye models and simulation/shading of skin imperfections. The planet Crait’s red crystal deposits, hidden under flat plains of white salt, proved to be a visually striking environment for the VFX team to create. Based on plate photography shot in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni salt flat, the sequence was ultimately realized using a combination of exterior trench sets, Bolivian plates, interior stage photography and full CG shots. The crystal foxes on Crait, designed by Neal Scanlan’s creature team and executed as hand-animated CG characters, featured shimmering ‘fur’ coats of clear crystal shards brought to life by the visual effects team. Summing up, Morris says, “Increasingly in filmmaking, visual effects is not just a tool to create magic. It’s becoming a Swiss army knife tool kit. We can modify things in shots and even change the weather, so we’re indirectly helping all departments in the film, which is why nowadays VFX crews are enormous. We’re not just creating aliens, spaceships and dinosaurs anymore.”

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THE MUSIC For Star Wars fans everywhere, the iconic music composed by the legendary John Williams is part of the total moviegoing experience. In a career spanning more than five decades, Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Williams has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Arts; the Kennedy Center Honors; the Olympic Order; and numerous Academy Awards®, GRAMMY® Awards, Emmy® Awards and Golden Globe® Awards. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than 100 films, including all eight Star Wars episodes. For The Last Jedi, Williams recorded 138 minutes of music with the orchestra, which Williams says “is something of a record.” The last day of recording on films is always a bit emotional for Williams, and for the orchestra as well. “We’ve been together for so many years,” says Williams. “We’ve finished a lot of films together, so there’s always a sense of satisfaction in coming to the end of the musical journey of it. But there’s also the sense of feeling sorry that we won’t be meeting again next week to record some more Star Wars music. We have to look forward to the next episode.” Williams finds that the process of recording film scores is a “very pleasant experience, going back to the earliest days of Star Wars where we introduced the London Symphony Orchestra to the process, which was the first in my experience having an organized orchestra performing a soundtrack, and how wonderful an experience that was.” For Williams, composing and recording the music for the Star Wars films is special. “The beauty of Star Wars is, as I said to Rian, making a little joke about it, that it’s not a science fiction film, it’s a musical,” Williams laughs. “So when you go into the mixing, please remember that Star Wars will allow us to play music all the time, and basically we do. The orchestra starts with a trumpet blast, and it sort of ends with a trumpet blast, and everything in between has been scored. We don’t want to do that with every film, certainly, but the fun of Star Wars from a musical point of view is that it’s completely sympathetic with music.” As with previous Star Wars films, many of the characters have their own musical themes. Williams explains, “Rey has a theme, Kylo Ren has a theme, Finn has one, Rose has one… These thematic elements infuse the whole score and are part of what moves the film along, giving it its sonic outline. In the Star Wars films, the orchestra

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can be as extrovert as it wants to be at given times, so it really becomes a big part of the fun and imagination of it all.” Williams adds, “The Last Jedi in particular is rife with interrelationships with characters that we know. It’s wonderful to see Rey and Finn again, and Rose introduced, and the other characters that are portrayed in the musical way that they are. I won’t give them away, but there are a couple of really fun inside jokes about how we’ve disguised some old music that Rian wanted to place here and there. I’ll leave the viewers to discover it—or ignore it as they wish—but we had a playful time with it as well.” Producer Ram Bergman was privileged to see Williams in action with the orchestra and could not help but be “wowed” by the experience. “When you are there and you listen to John Williams recording and playing with this 100-piece orchestra, it’s like this is the moment you know you’re doing Star Wars. It was a highlight and one of the best Star Wars memories I’ll take with me.” Williams speaks for all when he says, “It’s been quite a privilege for a musician to be associated with Star Wars. I’m eternally grateful to George Lucas. We all need to be.”

THE EXPERIENCE There is no doubt that when actors and filmmakers embark on the journey of making a Star Wars film, it becomes an experience that is organic, memorable and even nostalgic for many of them. As director Rian Johnson says, “The cultural enormity of Star Wars is so vast, it’s impossible to really hold it in a real way in your mind, which is a very, very good thing. There are brief moments where you intellectually realize the reach that this story you’re telling is going to have, but grasping that in any meaningful way is impossible. So at the end of the day you’re really left with your experience of making it and what the story means to you personally.” Johnson recalls that his own favorite memory of the experience was a small, incidental one. “There was an afternoon when we were filming outside, and a rain shower came out of nowhere. We all huddled under the nearest cover, which happened to be our full-sized construction of the Falcon. That memory will always stick with me: a group of film-crew goofballs caught in the English rain, all trying to stay dry under the Millennium Falcon. That was magic.” Coming back to Star Wars was a different experience for Daisy Ridley this time around. “It does sound like a cliché, but it means something entirely different now than it ever did before,” Ridley admits. “Now I get to be a part of this amazing thing and represent this cool person who is speaking to a lot of people and work with really amazing people and be on a set with the most incredible crew ever. It’s wonderful.” Describing her experience making The Last Jedi, first-timer Kelly Marie Tran says, “My

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first day on set, I walked on and C-3PO was there. I just walked up to Anthony Daniels and asked for a hug, and he hugged me. It was the best experience ever. It was so insane to have this mix of the new characters and the older characters and me being a new character with all of them. I still can’t separate reality from fantasy in my mind because I can’t believe it’s really happening and that I got to work with all these people.” But when it comes to selecting one Star Wars experience from over the years that is most meaningful to him, there is one veteran Star Wars actor who confesses that it is difficult to pick just one. “It’s just one after another,” says Mark Hamill. “I loved all this adventure as a child anyway, and to have this amalgamation of all these films—westerns, WWII movies, cowboys, pirate movies—all mushed together in this new way day after day was wonderful. I couldn’t believe I got to do it. Is there one moment? No. There are a million moments.”

ABOUT THE CAST MARK HAMILL (Luke Skywalker) has enjoyed a career that has encompassed all aspects of entertainment, including stage, screen, television and new media. He is best known as Luke Skywalker in George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” trilogy. He returned to the role in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Other films include: “Corvette Summer,” Samuel Fuller’s “The Big Red One,” “Slipstream,” “Walking Across Egypt,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” “Sushi Girl” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service.” Hamill directed and starred in the cult mockumentary “Comic Book: The Movie.” Broadway credits include “The Elephant Man,” “Amadeus” (also first national tour), Michael Stewart’s “Harrigan ’n Hart,” “The Nerd,” “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” and the Roundabout Theatre production of “Room Service.” A prolific voice-over artist, he has performed in countless television cartoons, feature films and video games. Hamill first played the Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series.” He returned to the role in the “Arkham Aslyum” video game series, for which he received a BAFTA Games Award, and in this year’s groundbreaking R-rated animated film “Batman: The Killing Joke.” This trend continued when he returned as the Trickster on CW’s “The Flash,” a role he first played in the original CBS series. Hamill has collaborated again with “Wing Commander” creator Chris Roberts for a new video game, “Star Citizen: Squadron 42,” with Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson and Ben Mendelsohn. Hamill plays Kyle Mooney’s father in the recently released “Brigsby Bear” along with

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Jane Adams, Greg Kinnear and Andy Samberg. As an avid collector he created “Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest,” which debuted on November 15, 2016, on Comic-Con HQ. CARRIE FISHER (Princess Leia), actress, writer, and daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, made her film debut in “Shampoo” and became a cultural icon playing Princess Leia in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. She starred in such hits as “When Harry Met Sally,” “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “The Blues Brothers.” Her television credits include “Laverne & Shirley” and “Sex and the City,” and her appearance in “30 Rock” was nominated for an Emmy® Award. Fisher’s best-selling novel “Postcards from the Edge” netted her the Los Angeles PEN Literary First Fiction Award, and her “Postcards” screenplay for the Oscar®-nominated film starred Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. Three novels and two memoirs have followed: “Delusions of Grandma,” “Surrender the Pink,” “The Best Awful,” “Wishful Drinking” and “Shockaholic.” Her one-woman Broadway show “Wishful Drinking” was filmed for HBO and was nominated for an Emmy®. In 2015, Fisher reprised her role as Princess Leia in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” ADAM DRIVER (Kylo Ren) was most recently seen in Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky,” opposite Daniel Craig and Channing Tatum; and Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” which opened in January 2017 and also stars Andrew Garfield and Liam Neeson. In 2016, Driver starred in Jim Jarmusch’s newest film, “Paterson,” in which he plays the titular role; and Jeff Nichols’ “Midnight Special” starring opposite Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton and Kirsten Dunst. In 2015 Driver starred in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in the role of the villainous Kylo Ren, the role he is reprising for “The Last Jedi.” Previously, Driver played one of the leads in Noah Baumbach’s “While We’re Young,” opposite Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts and Amanda Seyfried. “While We’re Young” premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released by A24 Films. He also starred in Saverio Costanzo’s “Hungry Hearts” alongside Alba Rohrwacher. The film premiered at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival, where Driver won the Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor for his performance. Also in 2014, Driver starred in Shawn Levy’s dramatic comedy “This Is Where I Leave You” alongside Jason Bateman, Connie Britton, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda; and opposite Mia Wasikowska in John Curran’s critically acclaimed “Tracks.” He was seen in the Coen brothers’ 2013 Academy Award®– and Golden Globe®–nominated film “Inside Llewyn Davis” alongside Oscar Isaac. In 2012 Driver appeared in Steven Spielberg’s

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Academy Award–nominated “Lincoln” with Daniel Day-Lewis. He also starred in Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha” alongside Greta Gerwig; and he appeared in Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed “J. Edgar” with Leonardo DiCaprio. Driver recently finished the sixth and final season of HBO’s critically acclaimed series “Girls,” in which he starred opposite Lena Dunham. Driver’s performance in “Girls” garnered him three consecutive Emmy® nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and a 2015 Critics’ Choice Television Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Additionally, in 2013 the show won a Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical, and a BAFTA Award. “Girls” received a Golden Globe nomination in that same category in 2014 and also Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2012 and 2013. In 2012, the show also won a Peabody Award and was honored as one of AFI’s Television Programs of the Year. Driver graduated from Juilliard in 2009 and is the co-founder of the nonprofit organization Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF). DAISY RIDLEY (Rey) is an English actress best known for her breakthrough role as Rey in the 2015 film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Ridley was most recently seen in Kenneth Branagh’s “Murder on the Orient Express” opposite Johnny Depp, which opened on November 10. In 2018, she will star in “Ophelia” with Naomi Watts. Ridley joined the voice cast of “Only Yesterday,” a film from one of the world’s best animation studios, Japan’s Studio Ghibli. In honor of the 25th anniversary of the original film, the studio was looking to dub the film in English and re-release it in English-speaking territories. As such, each character needed to have an American accent. Ridley, who is extremely passionate about all of the Ghibli films, would not let her British accent prevent her from being in the film, so she lost her British accent and, against the odds, won the lead role of Taeko. The film was released on February 26, 2016. She also served as an executive producer on the documentary “The Eagle Huntress,” which premiered at Sundance in 2016. The film, about a teenage girl named Asholpan living in the mountains of northwestern Mongolia who becomes the first female eagle huntress in the sport’s 2,000-year history, was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics and Celluloid Dreams following the festival. Ridley is the recipient of a 2016 Oscar Wilde Award. The nonprofit U.S.-Ireland Alliance created the event to recognize the contributions of the Irish in film. BAFTA’s 2016 Rising Star Award winner, JOHN BOYEGA (Finn), has captured worldwide attention for his starring role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Directed

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by J.J. Abrams, the film was released on December 18, 2015, and has grossed over $2 billion worldwide. Most recently, Boyega starred in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit”; James Ponsoldt’s adaptation of Dave Eggers’ sci-fi book “The Circle” opposite Tom Hanks and Emma Watson; and in the Sundance Award–winning feature film “Imperial Dreams.” Boyega first garnered industry attention in Joe Cornish’s cult sci-fi film “Attack the Block,” which won the Audience Award for Midnight Feature at SXSW in 2011, among other accolades. He went on to star in “Half of a Yellow Sun” alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor; the HBO pilot “Da Brick,” directed by Spike Lee; the BBC film “My Murder,” directed by Bruce Goodison; and the BBC/Discovery feature-length drama “The Whale” alongside Martin Sheen—all before landing the most competitive role, the male lead of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” His recent voiceover work includes the “Major Lazer” animated TV series; “Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens”; and “Disney Infinity 3.0.” Boyega trained at the Identity School of Acting before booking his first roles on stage in London’s West End—“Six Parties,” directed by Emma Keele at the National Theatre, and “Category B” at the Tricycle Theatre, directed by Paulette Randall. His screen debut was the critically acclaimed BBC series “Becoming Human,” where he starred in four episodes before guest starring in “Law & Order: UK” for ITV. He currently resides in London. OSCAR ISAAC (Poe Dameron) is one of the great young actors of today. He gained critical acclaim, a Golden Globe® nomination, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his portrayal of the title character in the Coen brothers’ film “Inside Llewyn Davis.” The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix award, and Isaac also garnered the Toronto Film Critics Award for Best Actor. Isaac shows off his skills as a singer and performer on the “Inside Llewyn Davis” soundtrack, lending an element of authenticity to his portrayal of the struggling folk singer. After receiving rave reviews for his starring role opposite Catherine Keener in the HBO miniseries “Show Me a Hero,” Isaac went on to receive a Golden Globe® Award for Best Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television and a Critics’ Choice Television Award nomination for Best Actor in a Movie Made for Television or Limited Series. Isaac played Nick Wasicsko, the youngest big-city mayor in the nation, who finds himself thrust into the center of the fight for housing desegregation in Yonkers, N.Y., in the late 1980s. In 2014, Isaac led J.C. Chandor’s action-packed drama “A Most Violent Year,” for which he earned the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor. The film itself won the National Board of Review Award for Best Film. The following year, Isaac starred

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alongside Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson in “Ex Machina,” written and directed by Alex Garland. The National Board of Review recognized “Ex Machina” as one of the ten best independent films of the year. In 2015, Isaac starred as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron in the highly awaited “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the seventh installment in the main “Star Wars” film series. Directed, co-produced and co-written by J.J. Abrams, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” premiered in December 2015 and within two weeks became the highest-grossing domestic film of all time. In 2016 Isaac was seen as the villain in 20th Century Fox’s “X-Men: Apocalypse,” directed by Bryan Singer. He was seen most recently in “The Promise” opposite Christian Bale, and George Clooney’s “Suburbicon,” released on October 27. Next he’ll be seen in “Annihilation” opposite Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson, which is slated for a February 23, 2018, release. Isaac also starred in “Mojave,” written and directed by William Monahan; “The Two Faces of January” from director Hossein Amini; “The Bourne Legacy,” the fourth installment of the Bourne franchise, directed by Tony Gilroy; “W.E.,” directed by Madonna; Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” opposite Carey Mulligan; and as Prince John in Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood.” Other past films include: the Anchor Bay ensemble feature “10 Years,” for which Isaac wrote an original song that he performs in the film; Zack Snyder’s “Sucker Punch”; “Agora,” directed by Alejandro Amenábar; “Balibo,” for which Isaac received an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor; “In Secret,” based on the Émile Zola novel; Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies”; Daniel Barnz’s “Won’t Back Down”; Steven Soderbergh’s “Che: Part 1”; Vadim Perelman’s “The Life Before Her Eyes”; HBO’s “Pu-239”; and “The Nativity Story,” in which he played Joseph. Off-Broadway, Isaac appeared in Zoe Kazan’s play “We Live Here” at Manhattan Theatre Club, as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” and in “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” the latter two productions for the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park. Isaac also appeared in “Beauty of the Father” at Manhattan Theatre Club and in MCC Theater’s “Grace.” Additional theater credits include: “Arrivals and Departures,” “When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba” and “Spinning Into Butter.” Isaac studied performing arts at the famed Juilliard School and currently resides in New York City. LUPITA NYONG’O (Maz Kanata) made her feature debut in Steve McQueen’s Academy Award®–winning film “12 Years a Slave” alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt. For her portrayal of Patsey, Nyong’o received the Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress as well as multiple other accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award®, a Critics’ Choice Award, an Independent Spirit Award, an NAACP Image Award and the 2013 Hollywood Film Awards New Hollywood Award.

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In 2016 Nyong’o starred in Mira Nair’s “Queen of Katwe” opposite David Oyelowo and Madina Nalwanga. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the Disney film is an inspirational true story about Phiona Mutesi, who overcame abject poverty to become an international chess master. Nyong’o’s portrayal of Phiona’s fierce yet tender mother, Harriet, earned her a nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. Also in 2016, Nyong’o lent her voice to Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” as Raksha, with Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Sir Ben Kingsley and Christopher Walken. Nyong’o earned a Tony® nomination for her 2016 Broadway debut in Danai Gurira’s play “Eclipsed.” It tells the story of five extraordinary women brought together by the upheaval of war in their homeland of Liberia. Prior to moving to Broadway, the play had a limited run at the Public Theatre. “Eclipsed” was nominated for an additional four Tony Awards, including Best Play, and won in the category of Best Costume Design. In December 2015, Nyong’o starred in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” alongside Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac. Nyong’o brought to life Maz Kanata, a motion-captured character. The film was released on December 18, 2015. Nyong’o will next star alongside Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Danai Gurira in Marvel Studios’ “The Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler. It is set for release in theaters on February 16, 2018. Nyong’o will play Nakia, a member of the Dora Milaje, the Special Forces group from the fictional nation of Wakanda. As a filmmaker, Nyong’o is set to produce and star in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s best-selling novel “Americanah” alongside David Oyelowo. “Americanah” is the sweeping love story, spanning three continents, of Ifemelu and Obinze, two Nigerians who face the complexities of race and identity away from home and each other. Nyong’o served as the creator, director, editor and producer of the award-winning feature-length documentary “In My Genes.” The documentary follows eight Kenyans who have one thing in common: They were born with albinism, a genetic condition that causes a lack of pigmentation. In many parts of the world, including Kenya, it is a condition that marginalizes, stigmatizes and even endangers those who have it. Though highly visible in a society that is predominantly black, the reality of living with albinism is invisible to most. Through her intimate portraits, Nyong’o enables us to see their challenges, humanity and everyday triumphs. Nyong’o graduated from the Yale School of Drama’s acting program, where her additional stage credits included playing Perdita in “The Winter’s Tale” (Yale

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Repertory Theatre), Sonya in “Uncle Vanya,” Katherine in “The Taming of the Shrew,” as well as being in the original production of Michael Mitnick’s “Elijah.” She currently resides in New York. ANDY SERKIS (Supreme Leader Snoke) is an award-winning actor who has earned acclaim from both critics and audiences for his work in a range of memorable roles. He gained legions of fans around the globe for his performance as Gollum in the Academy Award®–winning “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. Serkis won an Empire Award for his role, in addition to sharing in several Outstanding Ensemble Cast Awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award®. Reuniting with Jackson, he played two roles in the director’s epic retelling of “King Kong,” taking performance capture to another level as the title character of Kong and also appearing as Lumpy, the ship’s cook. Serkis is currently in post-production on “The Jungle Book,” an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling novel, for Warner Bros. “The Jungle Book” marks Serkis’ U.S. feature film directorial debut. His first directorial effort, “Breathe,” starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, was released in October 2017. He was most recently seen in “War for the Planet of the Apes” for 20th Century Fox and director Matt Reeves. His performance as Caesar in 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” received acclaim from both journalists and audiences worldwide, earning him a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. In 2015, Serkis appeared as Supreme Leader Snoke in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” He served as second unit director on Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy (most recently, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”) and reprised the role of Gollum in “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” In October 2012, Serkis announced the acquisition of two projects that will be produced by his London-based performance-capture studio, the Imaginarium: “The Bone Season,” based on the first in a series of books by Samantha Shannon, and a re-telling of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” which Serkis will direct. 20th Century Fox–based Chernin Entertainment will co-produce the adaptation of “The Bone Season” with the Imaginarium. Other recent credits include a starring role as Captain Haddock alongside Jamie Bell’s Tintin in “The Adventures of Tintin,” from director Steven Spielberg and producers Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy; as well as co-starring roles in “Death of a Superhero” and “Brighton Rock.” In 2010, Serkis received critical acclaim and accolades for his portrayal of punk-rock legend Ian Dury in the film “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” for director Mat Whitecross.

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The role earned Serkis a BAFTA nomination for Best Leading Actor. He also played 19th-century grave robber William Hare, opposite Simon Pegg’s William Burke, in John Landis’ black comedy “Burke and Hare.” On the small screen, Serkis appeared in the BBC miniseries “Little Dorrit,” based on Charles Dickens’ classic tale, which garnered him a 2009 Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. He also starred as Nobel Prize–winning physicist Albert Einstein in the BBC/HBO production of “Einstein and Eddington.” Serkis previously earned Golden Globe® and BAFTA TV Award nominations for his performance as Ian Brady in HBO’s “Longford.” He also garnered acclaim for the role of Bill Sikes in the PBS presentation of “Oliver Twist.” British television audiences also know him for a wide range of roles in telefilms, miniseries and series. Serkis’s feature film credits include Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed drama “The Prestige”; the comedy “13 Going on 30” with Jennifer Garner; and the indie films “The Cottage,” “Extraordinary Rendition” and “Sugarhouse.” He also lent his voice to the animated feature “Flushed Away.” He earlier co-starred in Michael Winterbottom’s “24 Hour Party People” and Mike Leigh’s “Topsy-Turvy.” Serkis includes among his additional film credits such independent releases as “Deathwatch,” “The Escapist,” “Shiner,” “Pandaemonium,” “The Jolly Boys’ Last Stand,” “Five Seconds to Spare,” “Sweety Barrett,” “Among Giants,” “Mojo,” “Career Girls,” “Loop,” “Stella Does Tricks” and “The Near Room.” An accomplished stage actor, Serkis has received acclaim for his work on the stages of London and across the United Kingdom. He starred as Iago in “Othello” at the Royal Exchange Theatre; played the Emcee in “Cabaret”; and originated the role of Potts in Jez Butterworth’s “Mojo” at the Royal Court Theatre. His stage work also includes productions of “King Lear,” “Hush” and “Decadence.” In 2003, he made his directorial debut with the play “The Double Bass” at London’s Southwark Playhouse. As a director, Serkis also helmed the award-winning “Heavenly Sword”™ for PlayStation®3 and “Enslaved: Odyssey to the West” for Namco Bandai Games. In addition, he wrote and directed a short film called “Snake,” starring his wife, Lorraine Ashbourne, and Rupert Graves. DOMHNALL GLEESON (General Hux) can be seen in several films this fall: Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” opposite Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Ed Harris; Doug Liman’s “American Made” with Tom Cruise; and Simon Curtis’ “Goodbye Christopher Robin.” He also plays the lead role of Stensland in the comedy feature “Crash Pad,” directed by Kevin Tent and co-starring Christina Applegate and Thomas Haden Church. In January 2015 he appeared in Enda Walsh’s play “The Walworth Farce,” directed by Sean Foley, starring alongside his father Brendan Gleeson and brother Brian Gleeson.

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Other recent credits include Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel “Brooklyn,” directed by John Crowley; “The Revenant,” directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu; J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”; Alex Garland’s sci-fi film “Ex Machina”; and the Coen brothers’ film adaptation of the biography of Louis Zamperini, “Unbroken,” directed by Angelina Jolie. Gleeson’s previous lead roles in film include Lenny Abrahamson’s “Frank” with Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Richard Curtis’ “About Time” opposite Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy; and “Sensation,” directed by Tom Hall. He received Irish Film and Television Awards for playing Bob Geldof in “When Harvey Met Bob”; Levin in Joe Wright’s “Anna Karenina”; and Jon in “Frank.” Supporting roles in film and television include John Michael McDonagh’s “Calvary”; Charlie Brooker’s “Black Mirror”; Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go”; Joel and Ethan Coen’s “True Grit”; the role of Bill Weasley in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (1 & 2),” directed by David Yates; and Martin McDonagh’s Oscar®-winning short “Six Shooter.” He also appeared in “Dredd,” directed by Pete Travis; “Shadow Dancer,” directed by James Marsh; Ian Fitzgibbon’s “Perrier’s Bounty”; “A Dog Year” for HBO Films opposite Jeff Bridges; Paul Mercier’s “Studs”; Stephen Bradley’s “Boy Eats Girl”; and John Butler’s “Your Bad Self,” for which he co-wrote sketches with Michael Moloney. Gleeson’s work onstage includes “Now or Later” at the Royal Court; “American Buffalo” and “Great Expectations” at the Gate Theatre; the Druid Theatre Company’s production of “The Well of the Saints”; “Macbeth,” directed by Selina Cartmell; and “Chimps,” directed by Wilson Milam at the Liverpool Playhouse. Gleeson was nominated for a Tony Award® for the Broadway production of Martin McDonagh’s “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” He received a Lucille Lortel nomination and a Drama League Citation for Excellence in Performance for the same role. He earned an Irish Times Theatre Award nomination for his role in “American Buffalo.” Gleeson wrote and directed the short films “Noreen” (starring Brendan and Brian Gleeson) and “What Will Survive of Us” (starring Brian Gleeson). He also created “Immaturity for Charity,” comedy sketches shot with family and friends in aid of St. Francis Hospice. The only actor to work on all eight “Star Wars” movies, ANTHONY DANIELS (C-3PO) is the heart and soul of the golden robot C-3PO. He is also the legs, arms and voice. Most recently, he reprised the role in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” After leaving drama college in 1974, Daniels won a BBC Award, which gave him a place in their Radio Drama Company. After hundreds of productions, he left to go into theatre, joining the National Theatre of Great Britain at the Young Vic. It was while playing in Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,” a story of two humble characters caught up in events beyond their control, that he got the call to meet George Lucas about a new sci-fi movie.

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Lucas was interested in Daniels’ acting and mime skills. Daniels, on the other hand, wasn’t interested at all, as he had never been attracted to the world of sci-fi. Though he did eventually meet the director, it was a concept painting of C-3PO that actually got his interest, and he was ultimately thrilled to be offered the role. The next day he was covered in plaster to make a mold of his body, the first step in creating the now globally recognized character. Six months later the costume was almost ready, and filming began on what would become “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.” Daniels reprised his role of C-3PO on the sets of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” His participation in “The Phantom Menace” was as an off-camera voice, but for “Attack of the Clones,” he took over the arduous puppetry of the “naked” C-3PO, subsequently reshooting his scenes in the rusty suit, once again providing live action and voice. “Revenge of the Sith” saw C-3PO once again fully gold and shining. Daniels has been involved in many of the spinoffs. Among other events, he has performed as the golden character in radio dramatizations, tap danced on “The Muppet Show,” promoted measles and polio vaccines, wrote and produced anti-smoking commercials, danced with Donny and Marie Osmond, took part in the Oscar® ceremonies, befriended Big Bird on “Sesame Street,” filmed and voiced the animated figure in Disney’s original “Star Tours” ride attraction (recently being promoted to be the reluctant pilot in “Star Tours – The Adventures Continue”), became a breakfast cereal (Kellogg’s C-3POs), conducted the London Symphony and the Boston Pops Orchestra, and had his own cartoon series, “Droids.” Daniels has been proud to work on and present “The Magic of Myth, the Art of Star Wars” and “Star Wars—Where Science Meets Imagination” exhibitions in their various locations around the world. He has presented a variety of symphonic events and is the on-stage narrator for the international arena spectacular “Star Wars in Concert” in its three North American, European and Japanese tours to date. Having participated in the animated “Clone Wars” and “Rebels,” he is currently working on the hilarious “Lego Star Wars” series. Although the “Star Wars” saga has formed a major part of Daniels’ working life, he has interspersed it with a variety of television and stage appearances, ranging from sitcoms to serious dramas, with forays into the world of horror cult movies. He was the voice of Legolas in the original “Lord of the Rings” animated film. He is also a presenter, producer and creative designer of trade events and conferences and a visiting scholar at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives with his wife, Christine, in England and the south of France. GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE (Captain Phasma) is one of the most exciting and unique British actresses working today, having caught the industry’s attention with her scene-stealing role in HBO’s global hit series “Game of Thrones.” Christie graduated from

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Drama Centre London in 2005 and has also modeled for some of the most exciting fashion houses in her diverse career. In 2015 Christie appeared in cinema’s most beloved sci-fi franchise, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” directed by J.J. Abrams. She starred alongside John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o and Domhnall Gleeson, who all joined the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew. Christie played Captain Phasma, the villainous First Order officer. Also in 2015, Christie was seen as Commander Lyme, the leader of District 13 and a former Hunger Games champion, in the final installment of “The Hunger Games” series entitled “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2.” Christie is a series regular on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” portraying iconic warrior Brienne of Tarth. Her character was introduced in the second season, and the size of her role has since been increased due to her popularity with viewers. The series, an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s novels, is now watched by over 11 million viewers and is in its seventh season. Christie’s notable theatre credits include: “Doctor Faustus” in 2010, playing the role of Lucifer; the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as Mag Wildwood in 2009; and the Queen in Shakespeare’s romance “Cymbeline” in 2007. Her feature film debut came in 2009 with a supporting role in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” directed by Terry Gilliam, whom she has recently worked with again in his latest feature, “The Zero Theorem.” Christie resides in London, England. KELLY MARIE TRAN (Rose Tico) is a San Diego native and a graduate of UCLA. Her love of performing started at a very young age when she took an interest in singing and musical theater. Since then, she has trained at iO West, Second City and Upright Citizen’s Brigade. She has recurring credits on TV shows like NBC’s “About a Boy,” Amazon’s “Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street” and truTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything,” as well as appearances on “Now We Know” (National Geographic), “Fall Into Me” (Lifetime) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” She can be seen next in Netflix’s indie feature “XOXO” as well as in countless digital shorts for CollegeHumor Originals. LAURA DERN (Vice Admiral Holdo) has proven to be one of the great actresses of her generation, showing that she is capable of great depth and range, touching audiences and critics alike with her moving and heartfelt performances. In 2010, in celebration of their family legacy in film and television, Dern, her mother Diane Ladd and father

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Bruce Dern were awarded with the first-ever “Family Star Ceremony” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dern stars in Showtime’s revival of the cult-hit crime/mystery series “Twin Peaks.” Reuniting with director David Lynch, Dern stars alongside Kyle MacLachlan and Amanda Seyfried. The series premiered on May 21, 2017. In 2017, Dern won a Primetime Emmy® for her supporting role as Renata Klein in David E. Kelley’s TV miniseries “Big Little Lies.” Dern will next be seen in the feature film “Downsizing,” starring alongside Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig, in the December 22, 2017, release. She will also be seen in the upcoming films “The Tale” opposite Elizabeth Debicki, Common and Frances Conroy, and “Hard Powder” starring alongside Liam Neeson. She will also star in “JT Leroy,” with Kristen Stewart and Diane Kruger. In 2016, Dern starred in a series of highly anticipated films. Starring opposite Woody Harrelson, Dern was seen in Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “Wilson” directed by Craig Johnson. Dern was also seen in the Weinstein Company’s biographical drama “The Founder,” which recounts the story of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, played by Michael Keaton. Finally, Dern starred alongside Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart in Kelly Reichardt’s drama “Certain Woman,” which premiered at Sundance to rave reviews. In 2014, Dern was seen in Ramin Bahrani‘s “99 Homes,” starring opposite Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon. In December of that year, she co-starred in Fox Searchlight’s “Wild,” for which she earned her second Academy Award® nomination. The film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, is screenwriter Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling 2012 memoir. In 2014, Dern was also seen in Fox 2000’s film adaptation of John Green’s best-selling novel “The Fault in Our Stars.” She starred alongside Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort and Nat Wolff. Dern received a 2013 Primetime Emmy® Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in season 2 of HBO’s critically acclaimed original series “Enlightened.” Dern earned the 2012 Golden Globe® award for Best Actress in a Television Series, Comedy, for her performance in season 1, and the series also garnered a 2012 Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series, Comedy. In addition to starring in the series, Dern also served as the executive producer and co-creator alongside prolific writer and director Mike White. “Enlightened” premiered on October 10, 2011, and concluded its second and final season on March 3, 2013.

In September 2012, Dern was seen in “The Master.” The film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, also starred Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. In 2010, Dern was seen in a poignant role in the indie film “Everything Must Go” with

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Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall. The film was directed by first-time director Dan Rush and based on a Raymond Carver short story. The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. Also in 2010, Dern appeared in Universal Pictures’ “Little Fockers,” the sequel to “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers.” The film also starred Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. In 2008, HBO’s “Recount” revisited the 2000 presidential election controversy in Florida. Dern starred alongside Kevin Spacey, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., John Hurt, Denis Leary, Bruce McGill and Tom Wilkinson. The ensemble cast portrayed key players in one of the most dramatic events in U.S. history. For her performance as Katherine Harris, Dern earned a 2008 Golden Globe® Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television and was nominated for an Emmy® Award and Screen Actors Guild Award®. The film was written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach.

In 2007, Dern starred in “Year of the Dog” alongside Molly Shannon, Peter Sarsgaard and Regina King. The movie was written and directed by Mike White. In 2006, Dern was seen starring as three different characters in David Lynch’s feature film “Inland Empire.” The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was screened at the New York Film Festival and AFI Film Festival. At the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, Film Independent gave their Special Distinction Award to David Lynch and Laura Dern for their collaborative work on this movie, as well as on “Blue Velvet” and “Wild at Heart.” In 2005, Dern filmed the Todd Robinson–directed drama “Lonely Hearts,” based on the 1940s true story of two homicide detectives who track a murderous pair of killers known as the Lonely Hearts Killers. Dern starred alongside John Travolta. Also in 2005, Dern appeared in a supporting role in the Don Roos–directed dark comedy “Happy Endings,” an ensemble film with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter and Bobby Cannavale. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and served as the closing-night film of the Los Angeles Film Festival. Dern also appeared with Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson in the 2005 DreamWorks film “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” directed by Jane Anderson. In 2004, Dern starred as the complex and conflicted Terry Linden opposite Mark Ruffalo in the feature film “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” for Warner Bros. Independent. Dern’s performance earned her strong critical reviews and praise from the industry and her peers. Dern appeared in a diverse selection of roles in three very different feature films in 2001. She starred alongside Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in New Line Cinema’s critically acclaimed “I Am Sam”; as Steve Martin’s suspicious dental hygienist girlfriend in Artisan Entertainment’s dark comedy “Novocaine”; and opposite William H. Macy

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in “Focus” for first-time director Neil Slavin. Dern also had a cameo appearance that year in Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic Park III,” which paired her again with director Joe Johnston and actor Sam Neill. On television in 2002, Dern delivered a captivating performance in Showtime’s “Damaged Care” in which she portrayed the real-life Dr. Linda Peeno, a whistleblower against HMOs’ managed-care practices. Dern also served as a producer on this project. Also in 2001, Dern appeared in Lifetime Television’s “Within These Walls” opposite Ellen Burstyn. Dern also starred in Showtime Television’s quirky romantic comedy “Daddy and Them,” a film written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. In January 1999 the Sundance Institute presented Dern with the Piper Heidsieck Award for Independent Vision, joining honorees such as Nicolas Cage, Tim Robbins, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore. Each year, this award is bestowed by the Sundance Film Festival in recognition of the original voice and vision of an actor whose work reveals commitment to independent spirit and artistic merit. In 1996, Dern starred in Miramax Films’ critically acclaimed black comedy “Citizen Ruth,” directed by a newcomer at that time, Alexander Payne, who has since earned Academy Awards® for his films “Sideways” and “The Descendants.” “Citizen Ruth” was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival, where Dern was awarded Best Actress for her role. In 1993, she starred opposite Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum in Steven Spielberg’s worldwide phenomenon and record-breaking box office success “Jurassic Park,” the first of the trilogy about cloned dinosaurs. Later that year, she starred opposite Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner in the Warner Bros. film “A Perfect World,” which Eastwood also directed. In one of the most critically applauded performances of the year, Laura Dern received both an Academy Award® nomination and a Golden Globe® nomination in 1992 for her performance as Rose in the acclaimed film “Rambling Rose,” directed by Martha Coolidge and co-starring her mother, Diane Ladd. This film upholds its place in history as the first time that a mother and daughter have earned Academy Award nominations for the same project.

In 1985, Dern won the Los Angeles Film Critics’ New Generation Award for her performance in the coming-of-age story “Smooth Talk.” Prior to “Inland Empire,” she starred in two films for director David Lynch: “Blue Velvet” in 1986 and “Wild at Heart,” winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Dern’s other film credits include Robert Altman’s “Dr. T & the Women,” “October Sky,” “Mask,” “Fat Man and Little Boy,” “Haunted Summer,” “Teachers,” “Foxes” and “Ladies and Gentleman, the Fabulous Stains.”

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Dern made her directorial debut with a short film called “The Gift,” which aired as part of Showtime's “Directed By” series in October 1994. The cast included Mary Steenburgen, Bonnie Bedelia, Isabella Rossellini, Mary Kay Place, Peter Horton and her mother, Diane Ladd. In 1997 Dern was nominated for an Emmy® Award and won an American Comedy Award for her guest-starring role in the controversial “Puppy Episode” of the ABC comedy “Ellen.” She received a 1998 Golden Globe® nomination for her role in Jane Anderson’s “The Baby Dance,” produced by Jodie Foster’s Egg Productions for Showtime. “The Baby Dance” was also awarded with two 1998 Peabody Awards. Dern received the Golden Globe® Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as Emmy® and Cable ACE nominations, for her starring role in the 1992 telefilm “Afterburn.” Her other work on television includes Showtime’s critically acclaimed film noir series “Fallen Angels,” for which she received an Emmy nomination, and Showtime’s original film “Down Came a Blackbird,” which she also produced, opposite Vanessa Redgrave and Raul Julia. Out of appreciation and respect for the extraordinary gift the Dern family has brought to the big and small screens, the Hollywood Entertainment Museum honored Bruce, Diane and Laura with the Hollywood Legacy Award. Dern resides in Los Angeles with her two children. BENICIO DEL TORO (DJ) has earned critical accolades throughout his career, winning an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” as well as an Oscar® nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu’s “21 Grams.” Del Toro collaborated with Soderbergh again to star in the biography of Che Guevera, “Che.” The performance won him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 and at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain, the following year. Del Toro recently starred in Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” opposite Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, as well as in Fernando León de Aranoa’s drama “A Perfect Day,” with Olga Kurylenko and Tim Robbins. Del Toro’s previous works include the Weinstein Company’s “Escobar: Paradise Lost”; Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice”; Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy”; Arnaud Desplechin’s “Jimmy P.”; Joe Johnston’s “The Wolfman”; Oliver Stone’s “Savages”; the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel “Sin City,” directed by Robert Rodriguez; Peter Weir’s “Fearless”; George Huang’s “Swimming with Sharks”; Mark Osborne’s animated drama “The Little Prince”; Abel Ferrara’s “The Funeral”; Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch”; Sean Penn’s “The Indian Runner” and “The Pledge”; Christopher McQuarrie’s “The Way of the Gun”; William Friedkin’s “The Hunted”; Susanne Bier’s “Things We Lost in the Fire” starring opposite Halle Berry; and as Dr. Gonzo in Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

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Del Toro made his motion picture debut in John Glen’s “License to Kill” opposite Timothy Dalton’s James Bond and has earned critical acclaim for his performances ever since. In addition to winning an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor in Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” his performance also garnered a Golden Globe®, a Screen Actors Guild Award®, a BAFTA Award and the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, as well as citations from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association. His work in “21 Grams” also earned Del Toro the Audience Award for Best Actor at the 2003 Venice International Film Festival. He earned Independent Spirit Awards for his performances as Fenster in Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects”; Benny Dalmau in Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat”; and most recently for best ensemble in Anderson’s “Inherent Vice.” Born in Puerto Rico, Del Toro grew up in Pennsylvania. He attended the University of California at San Diego, where he appeared in numerous student productions, one of which led to his performing at a drama festival at the Lafayette Theatre in New York. Del Toro studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory under the tutelage of Arthur Mendoza. JOONAS SUOTAMO (CHEWBACCA) will next be seen in Lucasfilm’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” where he will again play Chewbacca. The movie opens on May 25, 2018, in the U.S. Suotamo grew up in Matinkylä, Espoo, in Finland. His parents are teachers, and he has two brothers. Inspired by his older brothers, Suotamo started basketball at a young age and, at seven feet tall, his height became an obvious advantage in this sport. He became interested in acting through performing in plays during summer camps. Suotamo went on to study at Espoonlahti Upper Secondary School, where he took drama classes and performed in plays while playing basketball. Suotamo’s skill on the basketball court grew as the years passed until he began playing basketball for the youth national team and traveled to Mannheim, Germany, where he was approached by college recruiters. He decided to study at Pennsylvania State University in the United States because of the university’s acting and film programs. Suotamo chose studies over acting because of the perceived lack of roles for tall people. He graduated with a film degree in 2008 and went back to Finland to fulfill his army service commitments. Suotamo then became a professional basketball player in Finland and had various supporting jobs. Wishing to continue his passion for film, he now runs his own video production company while pursuing acting.

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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS RIAN JOHNSON (Writer/Director) is a director, writer and musician. Born in Maryland and raised in Southern California, after he graduated from high school, Johnson went on to attend the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. After writing and directing a few short films that won awards but did not bring him enough attention, Johnson decided to make his first feature film. Johnson’s debut feature, “Brick,” was released in 2005, garnering both great critical and audience acclaim and taking the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Brought to the screen with the help of producer Ram Bergman and director of photography Steve Yedlin, funding for the film was gained mostly through friends, family and acquaintances who believed in him. Since then Johnson’s career has built dramatically. With Bergman producing and Yedlin as his director of photography, Johnson has subsequently written and directed two other features: “Brothers Bloom” in 2008, a con-man story starring Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Adrian Brody; and “Looper” in 2012, set in the near future and described as dark science fiction. The film starred Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt. “Looper” opened the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and was a box office hit. Notably, he also directed three episodes of the hugely popular “Breaking Bad,” and two of those episodes were voted by viewers into the top 10 episodes of the series. KATHLEEN KENNEDY (Producer) joined Lucasfilm as president in 2012, entrusted by George Lucas to preserve and expand the Star Wars legacy. In addition to overseeing the company, Kennedy acted as producer on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and launched the critically acclaimed “Star Wars Rebels” animated series for Disney XD, beginning a new era of crossover feature, television and digital entertainment for the company. Nominated for eight Academy Awards®, Kennedy has produced or executive produced over 60 films, which have collectively garnered 120 Academy Award® nominations and 25 wins and have grossed over $11 billion worldwide. Among her credits are four of the highest-grossing films in motion picture history: “Jurassic Park,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “The Sixth Sense,” as well as such blockbuster entertainments as the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Gremlins,” “The Goonies,” “Poltergeist,” “War of the Worlds,” “Twister” and “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.” Her diverse filmography also includes acclaimed dramas like “Lincoln,” “War Horse,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Munich,” “Seabiscuit,” “Schindler’s List” and “The Color Purple” and animated motion pictures such as “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Persepolis,” “An American Tail” and “The Land Before Time.”

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Kennedy has produced the films of many celebrated directors, including Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Zemeckis, M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Oz, Peter Bogdanovich and Richard Donner. Prior to joining Lucasfilm, Kennedy headed the Kennedy/Marshall Company, which she founded in 1992 with director/producer Frank Marshall, and in 1982 she co-founded the phenomenally successful Amblin Entertainment with Marshall and Steven Spielberg. RAM BERGMAN (Producer) is a longtime collaborator of writer/director Rian Johnson, producing Johnson’s celebrated time-travel thriller “Looper,” as well as his earlier works “The Brothers Bloom” and “Brick.” Recently, he produced Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” based on the memoir by celebrated Israeli author Amos Oz, and the Tarsem Singh–directed thriller “Self/less,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley. He also produced Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s critically acclaimed directorial debut “Don Jon,” co-starring Julianne Moore and Scarlett Johansson. Earlier credits include Patricia Riggen’s “Under the Same Moon” and Michael Radford’s “Dancing at the Blue Iguana,” among others. Bergman was nominated for the Producers Award at the 2006 Film Independent Spirit Awards and was named one of the Ten Producers to Watch by Variety in 2005. J.J. ABRAMS (Executive Producer) is a writer, director and producer and the founder of Bad Robot Productions. Abrams’ first break came while still attending Sarah Lawrence College when he and friend Jill Mazursky sold a story that would later be produced as the film “Taking Care of Business.” Abrams wrote several films, such as “Forever Young,” “Joy Ride” and “Armageddon,” before co-creating the Golden Globe®–nominated television show “Felicity” with longtime friend Matt Reeves. He followed that by creating “Alias” before collaborating with Damon Lindelof to create the Emmy Award®–winning television series “Lost.” Abrams also received an Emmy for directing the show’s pilot episode and went on to produce series such as “Fringe” and “Person of Interest.” In 2006, Abrams directed his first feature film, “Mission: Impossible III.” He followed that with the critically praised hit films “Star Trek,” “Super 8” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” In 2015 Abrams directed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which he also produced and co-wrote with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt. Abrams has continued with the “Mission: Impossible” and “Star Trek” franchises as a producer while also launching his own film franchise with the “Cloverfield” series.

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He is currently producing the television series “Westworld,” “Castle Rock” and “Lovecraft Country” and the films “M:I 6 – Mission Impossible,” “God Particle” and “Overlord.” In addition to his film and television work, Abrams also conceived the novel “S.” with writer Doug Dorst, which became a New York Times Best Seller in 2013. He is currently producing “The Play That Goes Wrong,” which premiered on Broadway in April of this year. Abrams and his wife, Katie McGrath, live in Los Angeles and have three children. TOM KARNOWSKI (Executive Producer) is a veteran producer who has worked with high- profile action-adventure stars, young up-and-comers and everyone in between. He served as co-producer on the highly acclaimed “The Illusionist,” which won the National Board of Review’s Top Independent Film Award. Karnowski’s extensive executive producer credits include such films as “The Light Between Oceans,” “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “The Man with the Iron Fists,” “Season of the Witch,” “Max Payne” and “10,000 BC.” He also produced or co-produced “EuroTrip,” “The Brothers Bloom,” “Everything Is Illuminated,” “Cyborg,” the “Nemesis” series and “The Sword and the Sorcerer,” which he also co-wrote. JASON McGATLIN (Executive Producer) is the Lucasfilm senior vice president of production, where he oversees all physical production for Lucasfilm, including all “Star Wars” feature films and all “Star Wars” animated series. McGatlin was one of the executive producers for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One.” McGatlin began his early career working on films such as Clint Eastwood’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “The Bridges of Madison County”; “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”; “Deep Blue Sea”; “The Parent Trap”; “Speed 2: Cruise Control”; “Volcano”; and “Broken Arrow.” He moved up to production supervisor for Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes” in 2001 and both produced and edited the documentary “Old Coaches” and the film “Head Hunter” the following year. In 2003 McGatlin returned as production supervisor for “X-Men 2,” followed by “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “X-Men: The Last Stand” and “War of the Worlds,” his first film with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. He became production manager in 2007 on “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” In 2011, McGatlin rejoined Spielberg and Kennedy to co-produce “The Adventures of Tintin,” which spanned three years of production in both Los Angeles and New Zealand. After Kennedy became president of Lucasfilm in 2012, she handpicked McGatlin to come on as senior vice president of production to help oversee the finalization of the animated feature “Strange Magic,” executive produced by George Lucas.

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STEVE YEDLIN (Director of Photography) has enjoyed a successful collaboration with Rian Johnson from early on. Their credits together include the lauded “Looper,” “The Brothers Bloom” and “Brick,” which reaped critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision. Beyond his work with Johnson, Yedlin has also shot many critically acclaimed independent features, including “May”; “Father of Invention”; “Tenure”; “Conversations with Other Women,” which won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival; “Girl Most Likely”; and the Oscar®-nominated documentary short “The Witness from the Balcony of Room 306.” His most recent projects include Brad Peyton’s “San Andreas,” Kimberly Peirce’s “Carrie” and the Dan Fogelman–directed “Danny Collins.” RICK HEINRICHS (Production Designer) is best known for collaborating with director Tim Burton, winning an Academy Award® for his work on “Sleepy Hollow.” He served as production designer on Tim Burton’s “Dark Shadows,” “Frankenweenie,” “Big Eyes” and “Planet of the Apes,” and he is currently working on “Dumbo.” He was also nominated for an Academy Award® for “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Other notable credits include “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and the Coen brothers’ “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski.” BOB DUCSAY (Editor) most recently worked on Dave Green’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” Brad Peyton’s “San Andreas” and the Gareth Edwards–directed “Godzilla.” Other recent credits include Bryan Singer’s fantasy adventure “Jack the Giant Slayer” and Rian Johnson’s acclaimed thriller “Looper.” Ducsay is a longtime collaborator of filmmaker Stephen Sommers, serving as his editor and producer on “The Mummy Returns,” “Van Helsing” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” as well as producing “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” Ducsay’s other editing credits include “The Adventures of Huck Finn,” “The Jungle Book,” “Deep Rising” and “The Mummy.” He also executive produced the 2004 Academy Award®–winning short film “Two Soldiers.”

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BEN MORRIS (Visual Effects Supervisor) is a VFX supervisor and creative director at Industrial Light & Magic, as well as being a founding member of the company’s London studio, which was established in October of 2013. Since establishing the London studio alongside executive in charge, Sue Lyster, Morris has stewarded its growth from just four individuals to over 450 today. The London studio launched with projects such as “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Star Wars: The Force Awakens and “Spectre,” and continues to work on some of the largest blockbusters in recent history. Early in life, Morris’ interest in animation would see him creating short films in the family garden shed with a camera given to him by his father. That passion remained with him as he selected his course of studies to reach his goal of working in film. Morris began his career as a model maker and animatronics engineer at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, where he designed performance control systems for films such as “Babe.” Sensing a shift in the industry, Morris moved into computer graphics, putting his vast experience in physical creature work to use as a character rigger and lead CG artist at Millfilm, where he supervised the CG humans for Ridley Scott’s epic “Gladiator.” In 2000, Morris joined Framestore, where he worked on a number of films, including “The Golden Compass,” for which his efforts were honored with an Academy Award® and the BAFTA for Best Visual Effects. Most recently, Morris served as a visual effects supervisor on Alfonso Cuarón’s thriller, “Gravity.” Morris is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and holds an undergraduate degree and an honorary Doctorate from Bristol University. In a career spanning more than five decades, JOHN WILLIAMS (Composer) has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Williams has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Arts; the Kennedy Center Honors; the Olympic Order; and numerous Academy Awards®, GRAMMY® Awards, Emmy® Awards and Golden Globe® Awards. He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than 100 films. His 40-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including “Schindler’s List,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the “Indiana Jones” films, “Saving Private Ryan,” “Amistad,” “Munich,” “Hook,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Minority Report,” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “Empire of the

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Sun,” “The Adventures of Tintin” and “War Horse.” Their latest collaboration, “The BFG,” was released in summer of 2016. Williams composed the scores for all seven “Star Wars” films, the first three “Harry Potter” films, “Superman,” “JFK,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Far and Away,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “Home Alone,” “Nixon,” “The Patriot,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “Seven Years in Tibet,” “The Witches of Eastwick,” “Rosewood,” “Sleepers,” “Sabrina,” “Presumed Innocent,” “The Cowboys,” “The Reivers” and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” among many others. He has worked with many legendary directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler and Robert Altman. In 1971, he adapted the score for the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof,” for which he composed original violin cadenzas for renowned virtuoso Isaac Stern. He has appeared on recordings as pianist and conductor with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jessye Norman and others. Williams has received five Academy Awards® and 50 Oscar® nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most-nominated person in the history of the Oscars. His most recent nomination was for the film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” He also has received seven British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), 23 GRAMMYS®, four Golden Globes®, three Emmys® and numerous gold and platinum records. Born and raised in New York, Williams moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948, where he studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, he returned to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. While in New York, he also worked as a jazz pianist, both in nightclubs and on recordings. He returned to Los Angeles and began his career in the film industry, working with a number of accomplished composers, including Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking early anthology series “Alcoa Theatre,” “Kraft Television Theatre,” “Chrysler Theatre” and “Playhouse 90.” His more recent contributions to television music include the well-known theme for “NBC Nightly News” (“The Mission”); the theme for what has become network television’s longest-running series, NBC’s “Meet the Press”; and a new theme for the prestigious PBS arts showcase “Great Performances.” In addition to his activity in film and television, Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies and concertos for flute, violin, clarinet, viola, oboe and tuba. His cello concerto was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood in 1994. Williams also has filled commissions by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic entitled “The Five Sacred Trees,” a trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “Seven for Luck,” a seven-piece song cycle for soprano and orchestra based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in 1998. At the opening concert of their 2009/2010 season, James Levine led the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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in the premiere of Williams’ “On Willows and Birches,” an original concerto for harp and orchestra. In January 1980, Williams was named 19th music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops laureate conductor, which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993, after 14 highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of artist-in-residence at Tanglewood.

One of America’s best-known and most-distinctive artistic voices, Williams has composed music for many important cultural and commemorative events. “Liberty Fanfare” was composed for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. “American Journey,” written to celebrate the new millennium and to accompany the retrospective film “The Unfinished Journey” by director Steven Spielberg, was premiered at the “America’s Millennium” concert in Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Eve, 1999. His orchestral work “Soundings” was performed at the celebratory opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In the world of sport, he has contributed musical themes for the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympic Games; the 2002 Winter Olympic Games; and the 1987 International Summer Games of the Special Olympics. In 2006, Williams composed the theme for NBC’s presentation of NFL football. Williams holds honorary degrees from 22 American universities, including Harvard University, the Juilliard School, Boston College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University, New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern California. He is a recipient of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States government. In 2016, Williams received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute – the first composer in history to receive this honor. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order, the International Olympic Committee’s highest honor, for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He served as the Grand Marshal of the 2004 Rose Parade in Pasadena and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2004. Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2009, and in January of that same year he composed and arranged “Air and Simple Gifts” especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama. MICHAEL KAPLAN (Costume Designer) has an authentic yet inspired vision that flourishes in any era, from his period costumes for the worlds of “Burlesque” and “Winter’s Tale” to the futuristic designs of “Blade Runner” and “Star Trek.” After winning a BAFTA Award for his work in director Ridley Scott’s groundbreaking sci-fi drama “Blade Runner,” Kaplan ignited a fashion trend for an entire generation with his costume designs in Adrian Lyne’s “Flashdance.” He later reunited with Scott to design the costumes for “Matchstick Men.”

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In addition, his fluency with multiple genres made him the costume designer of choice for director David Fincher on the films “Fight Club,” “Panic Room,” “The Game” and “Se7en,” as well as for Michael Bay on “Pearl Harbor” and “Armageddon.” His designs brought a daring tongue-in-cheek style to Doug Liman’s action-comedy hit “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”; sophistication and glamour to Michael Mann’s actioner “Miami Vice”; vibrant energy to Brad Bird’s international smash hit “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” starring Tom Cruise; and just the right note of restraint to Francis Lawrence’s sci-fi thriller “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith. With J.J. Abrams’ blockbuster “Star Trek,” Kaplan garnered his third of five Costume Designers Guild Award nominations. Kaplan’s work has most recently been seen in Todd Phillips’ “War Dogs”; J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”; “Winter’s Tale” for Akiva Goldsman, starring Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell; and J.J. Abrams’ sequel “Star Trek: Into Darkness.”