Little is known about Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o’s character in the upcoming Star Wars movie, except that she plays a former space pirate named Maz Kanata, and The Force Awakens character has been hiding in plain sight on the film’s poster this whole time, nestled between R2-D2 and BB-8.
“I had some specific ideas about how she would work and what she would do,” J.J. Abrams tells EW. “I had this pitch about these goggles that she wore. Her eyes are an important aspect of her character, and you’ll see how it plays out.”
Abrams goes on to reveal some tidbits about the character’s history before confirming fans will be seeing more of her in another medium at some point.
“Her history is that she was a pirate for a long time. She’s lived over a thousand years. She’s had this watering hole for about a century, and it’s like another bar that you’d find in a corner of the Star Wars universe….All that backstory will be forthcoming. In the movie, you don’t learn these things, but I know that these are things that are coming out in other venues.”
Nyong’o also opened up about the character and working with Andy Serkis to bring her motion-capture performance to life.
“The biggest advice (Andy) gave me, that was so important to hold on to, is a motion-capture character you develop the same way as any other. You have to understand who the character is and what makes them who they are,” she says. “As an actor for films, your eyes are a lot of the way you communicate anyway. So it was definitely a gift to have that be the means to her magic as a motion-capture character.”
As more information on Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to roll out, check back here for even more updates. In the meantime you can check out two new promos for the film below.
Opening in theaters on December 18, 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and features a new generation of swashbuckling heroes and shadowy villains, as well as the return of fan-favorite smugglers, princesses, and Jedi.
Directed by J.J. Abrams, the highly-anticipated movie stars Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Max Von Sydow. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk are producing with Tommy Harper and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt.
