Captain Phasma’s Armor Was Originally Designed for Kylo Ren
By Ani Bundel
There was so much buried in the Entertainment Weekly Star Wars double issue yesterday, it was impossible to cover all of it. But one story that stuck out at me as I went through their huge collection of promotional pictures for The Force Awakens was a tidbit about Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma.
According to Abrams and Christie, the chrome plated armor wasn’t originally meant for her. In fact, the concept of the “Chrome Plated Storm Trooper” was originally designed for their new leader, Kylo Ren. Abrams loved the concept, but not for Ren. Then he got an idea.
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“I just thought it would be really cool if we could find someone to play the part who was female, and I’m a fan of Game of Thrones; Gwendoline is in that show, [The Force Awakens casting director] Nina Gold casts it, she knew Gwendoline, obviously,” he says. “We were very lucky to get to have her in the movie. She’s not in many scenes, but her presence is powerfully felt when she’s there.”
More importantly, Gwen Christie isn’t the only female storm trooper in the movie.
“We had women in stormtrooper costumes in the movie,” Abrams says, so audiences will be seeing a mixed gender fighting force from The First Order whether they realize it or not. (The armor isn’t form-fitting, of course.)
They won’t be taking their helmets off (I believe Christie probably won’t either.) But the knowledge that you cannot know what to expect when any trooper takes his or her helmet off–they could be any color, race or creed, and that’s including non humanoid. It shows just how far the galaxy far far away has come in terms of equality, not to mention height restrictions. Turns out nowadays, no one is a little short, or a little anything else, for a storm trooper.
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