'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Character Names Explained
Entertainment Weekly is on a roll with Star Wars coverage from their upcoming Kylo Ren cover issue featuring Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One of the many things their coverage has touched upon is the meaning behind the names of the characters in Episode 7. How did Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron and Kylo Ren get their names? What was director JJ Abrams' inspiration? Is there a greater meaning to the names? Find out after the jump.
I was one of those Star Wars fans who didn't love the The Force Awakens character names when they were announced. I always loved the obvious symbolism of the character names from George Lucas' films:
There are many others, but we'll move on.
To me the names of the characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens didn't seem to have any symbolism. A lot of the power of George Lucas' original trilogy came from the symbolism, not just in the names but from the overarching mythology of the heroes' journey. To not have meaning behind the names seemed like a misstep for the series. But maybe I was wrong. Maybe the names do have a deeper meaning.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character Names Explained
Finally we have an answer as EW was able to quiz JJ Abrams about the origins of the names. And it turns out, I was sadly right. The names don't have much symbolic meaning (at least that JJ Abrams is willing to admit at this time), most of them are derived from people or things the filmmaker knows:
Of course, Abrams didn't go much into the meanings behind Finn and Rey's first names. I'm hopeful there is a greater meaning there somewhere.
The piece also gives some context to the image above that we ran earlier in the day. In the shot above, BB-8 was captured by "a surly little sand-dweller known as Teedo, who is riding atop what looks like a rhinoceros fused with metal boxes. That beast of burden is known as a luggabeast, a never-before-seen creature from the universe." Teedo is played by Kiran Shah, who appeared as an Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi.