One of the greatest aspects of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the introduction of new characters. One of those was Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron, the fearless Resistance pilot who, along with John Boyega’s Finn, escaped the First Order’s clutches during a thrilling early sequence in the film, leading to their crash on Jakku.
While we loved Dameron’s involvement, he certainly took a backseat to Boyega and Daisy Ridley’s Rey. However, our friends at Squareeyed have some cracking news…. next time out though, in Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII, Dameron will play a much bigger role in the trilogy’s darker second chapter.
“In the new film, there’s a lot more to do,” Isaac said of his role to Rolling Stone in Episode VIII. “What happens now is the heroes get tested. All three of them,” he added, explaining that Poe, Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) will all “get tested immensely.”
But what about the lovable droid BB-8? Isaac says: “BB-8 gets tested too! Everybody gets tested! It’s the dark second chapter, but not really dark.”
“It’s the first time in my life when things have been mapped out for quite some time,” he says. “I’m basically Star Wars-ring until 2020.”
Wait a second.
Hmmm, if he’s telling the truth here (and there was no indication of him reneging on what he said), that would surely mean Dameron survives through Episode VIII and plays a part in Colin Trevorrow’s Episode IX, which is scheduled for release in 2019.
Well, he’s one of the main characters, so that doesn’t really come as much of a surprise, you may be thinking. However, as you also may recall, Dameron was originally supposed to die quite early on the film.
GQ Magazine covered the story back in December, recounting it as follows:
Isaac says he had been summoned to Paris for what he suspected might be a role in The Force Awakens. Sure enough, earlier that day, he had met with Abrams, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, and Abrams had pitched him the character of Poe Dameron, a badass fighter pilot battling against the remnants of the Empire.
“He’s amazing!” said Abrams.
“Sounds good!” thought Isaac, whose first experience in a movie theater had been seeing The Empire Strikes Back.
“He opens the movie!” said Abrams.
“Sounds great!” thought Isaac.
“And then,” Abrams went on. “He dies.”
“Oh,” thought Isaac.
At the time, Isaac obviously wasn’t ecstatic about what was essentially a cameo appearance, but when he next spoke to Abrams – to tell him he was going to do it anyway – the director revealed that he’d changed the story to have him in it from beginning to end.
Isaac wasn’t thrilled about what would amount to a lengthy cameo appearance, but he eventually agreed to take on the role. By that time, though, his reaction convinced J.J. Abrams to keep the character around for the rest of the film.
“I went back home [to New York], and I thought about it,” he says. “Then I wrote him and said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it!’ I figured it would be a cameo: I’ll come in, do my thing, and maybe it’s actually better not to have to sign myself up for three movies.” By that time, though, things had changed and Abrams soon wrote back: “Never mind. I’ve figured it out. You’re in the whole movie now.”
“I was like, ‘Holy shit! Alright, cool,’” Isaac replied.
This is great news from we’re sitting. Dameron is a great character and Isaac plays him extremely well. We’re looking forward to seeing Dameron’s arc in Episode VIII.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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