We just brought you the four covers of the new issue of ‘Entertainment Weekly’ featuring characters from ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’  The magazine doesn’t arrive until Friday but now we already have some of the photos that will be featured within its pages as well as some details about the new characters that will be debuting in this new installment.

One interesting reveal is a photo of John Boyega’s Finn dressed in his Stormtrooper armor from earlier in the film, meeting Oscar Isaac’s Rebel pilot Poe Dameron, coupled with a photo of the pair from later in the film after Finn has switched allegiances.

See these two encounters and more in the photos below:

Here a few nuggets regarding the characters gleaned from the magazine article:

  • Captain Phasma was originally supposed to be played by a male.  Not only was the role retooled for Gwedoline Christie, so was her armor, which was designed to be Kylo Ren’s.
  • Phasma isn’t the only female villain. The ranks of the Stormtroopers will be filled with male and female soldiers.
  • Finn and other children like him, was raised in a pro-Empire environment and fed tales of the villainous Rebel Alliance who overthrew the benevolent Empire.  He actually knows more about the mysterious Luke Skywalker than Rey, but the perspective of what he knows is skewed as Finn views Skywalker as a terrible villain who destroyed the benevolent Empire.
  • Rey is guided by hope. Despite being abandoned on Jakku when she was five years-old, she isn’t dark and resentful.  Says Daisy Ridley, who plays her, “When something occurs when you’re 5, you know what went on but you don’t understand the reasoning. She’s hopeful for what lies ahead, whether that involves the past or not.  Hope makes people good, a lot of the time. You hope for a brighter future, and resentment is outweighed.”  Sounds like Rey has a lot in common with another big screen orphan, whose motto (and theme song) went, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow… Just thinkin’ about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow ’til there’s none.”
  • Less upbeat?  Kylo Ren, the villain whose rise to power plays a major part in this film.  Just as Finn was raised to believe one truth, which viewers know isn’t the real truth, so was Kylo Ren and the actor that plays him, Adam Driver points out that there is more to his character than mustache twirling menace.  “When you break all of those things down, really it’s just because someone wasn’t loved enough or felt betrayed. That’s what makes those movies so universal. I think they can get in your mind in big and sweeping ways.”

You can find out even more when the special ‘Star Wars’ double issue arrives on Friday.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ starring John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker hits theaters on December 18, 2015.

Source: Collider