Star Wars' Gwendoline Christie Thinks Captain Phasma Secretly Had A Crush On Finn
Star Wars Celebration is a place full of treasures and gems for fans of the galaxy far, far away. This is where the biggest news is announced, and where movies that may or may not get made are first unveiled alongside first looks at incoming projects. Naturally, all of this happens while all kinds of merch and art are open to the public to purchase with their hard-earned credits.
While the flashy panels with big announcements get all the attention, it is often in the less extravagant panels that you find the juiciest information and insights about the making of this franchise. One such panel was the Villains of the Sequel Trilogy discussion, in which actors Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), and Ian McDiarmid (the Senator himself, Sheev Palpatine) talked about joining the franchise in new or returning roles and how they developed their roles in these three films.
Always a joy to watch, Gwendoline Christie absolutely ate up the conversation and held the crowd on the palm of her hand. She told stories of playing this generation's Boba Fett, the character with the cool costume who appeared for only a handful of scenes but chewed up every moment on screen and left people wanting more as they took to buying the figure to imagine what happened to them.
Phasma remains one of the most bafflingly vague and mysterious characters of the sequel trilogy, one with as little information about her background as she has lines in the film. Still, she is also one of the coolest. During the panel, Christie finally answered one of the biggest lingering questions about the chrome-clad stormtrooper captain — why the hell was she so fixated on Finn? Well, in short, Christie explained to thunderous applause that it was "because she fancies him."
Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme
It makes all the sense in the world when you think about it. Phasma and Finn have little screen time in the trilogy, but whenever they are together on screen, there is a palpable and intense chemistry, which leads to some of the best verbal confrontations in those movies alongside sparring sessions between Reylo (Rey and Kylo Ren) and Poemitage (Poe Dameron and Armitage Hux).
Phasma doesn't seem that much different from other abusive Imperials we've met throughout the decades like Tarkin or Thrawn. She has a commanding presence and overall very intense vibe, but for some reason, she is very much out to get Finn more than any other rebel, even before he joins the Resistance. That there is something else there, something Christie defines as "oppressed lust," would make this one of the most fascinating and funny relationships in the franchise.
It's not like the text disproves this theory, either. As Christie explained, the fact that Phasma never removes her armor like she was a Children of the Watch suggests inflexibility, which "suggests huge suppression of many, many things." When Phasma realizes that Finn escapes and turns to the Resistance, she starts envying him, because he is "someone who has liberated themselves from the confines of order and convention," as Christie described it, while Phasma herself remains "someone that has an inner fragility that is so intense that they have to press and lean into a sense of order and authority."
So where does that leave us? During the panel, Gwendoline Christie and Andy Serkis joked about wanting their characters to return, and given that Finn is still out there, why not fulfill this prophesied romance? Let Finn and Phasma explore their slow will-they-won't-they relationship, you cowards!