All things considered, things were fairly easy for Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But it sounds like that’s going to change in a big way the next time we see the character in this winter’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
In an interview with Movieweb, Oscar Isaac - the man who plays the franchise’s most dashing Resistance pilot - revealed that Poe “will be challenged, in a very intense way that will reveal a lot more about his character.” Considering we don’t know much about the character’s backstory right now, learning “a lot more” sounds good to me. Writer/director Rian Johnson had similarly vague-but-ominous-sounding words to describe Poe, Rey, and Finn’s journeys in his upcoming film when he spoke with USA Today, saying, “I wanted to know more about each of them, and that doesn’t just mean information or backstory. Figure out what’s the most difficult thing each of them could be challenged with now, let’s throw that at them and dig into what really makes them tick by seeing how they handle that.”
And judging from a brief glimpse at Poe in The Last Jedi teaser, things aren’t looking great for him and his little buddy BB-8:
Technically, yes - Poe encounters his share of troubles in The Force Awakens. His friend Lor San Tekka (the old man from the beginning) is murdered in front of him by Kylo Ren, and Poe is captured and tortured, but once Finn helps him break out of the New Order base, it’s pretty smooth sailing. Surviving that crash on Jakku seems easy for him (no broken limbs, no visible bruising), and he spends the rest of the movie kicking some serious New Order ass in his X-wing, including delivering the final shot to the Starkiller base. Seeing Poe be tested in his beliefs or his relationships will make him an objectively better character, and it’ll be even more satisfying to see him come out on top in the end. I mean… unless he dies. But he can’t die, right? Rian Johnson isn’t a complete monster, is he? We’ll find out soon enough.
Written and directed by Rian Johnson and starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, and more, Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, 2017. Click here for 10 questions we have after seeing that first teaser.
Images: Lucasfilm
