Tomorrow we celebrate the 40th Anniversary ofStar Wars: A New Hope, which arrived in theaters August 24, 2025. Today, however, we celebrate the upcoming sequelStar Wars: The Last Jedi, which brings us new worlds, new characters and a whole lot of never-before-seen Jedi moves. While a huge portion of the cast is returning from 2015’sThe Force Awakens, we’re also getting three new main characters.Rosewas revealed at Star Wars Celebration a few months ago. But today, we finally learn who Benicio Del Toro and Laura Dern are playing.
Vanity Fairand Annie Leibovitz have teamed with Disney and Lucasfilm for their traditionalStar Warspreview, which they have been doing for every movie since 1999’sPhantom Menace. Part of the celebration includes the big reveal of whoBenicio Del Toroand Laura Dern are playing, along with their first character portraits, which you may see below.
These three new characters are the complete invention of director Rian Johnson. And they begin with Benicio Del Toro, who is playing a character referred to as DJ, though he goes unnamed in the movie. Which is unique forStar Wars, and it will be interesting to see how this is handled when it comes time to drop the action figure. DJ is called a ‘shady character’ who’s allegiances are unclear. About calling Del Toro DJ on set, Rian Johnson says this.
“You’ll see, there’s a reason why we call him DJ…”
And now the speculation begins as fans start to pull apart those initials. He is dressed a bit like Han Solo, and has a very swarthy look, as you’re able to see in the images below. Next up in terms of important new faces in the Star Wars galaxy is Laura Dern. She is a prominent officer in the Resistance, and her name isVice Admiral Holdo. As you can see in the image below, she has pinkish-purple hair, something rumors have been telling us for months. So, expect some of the other leaks we’ve heard aboutStar Wars 8to be somewhat true.
You can see Rose once again in a cast shot that also features returning characters Finn, Poe Dameon and General Leia. She is played byKelly Marie Tran, and as we learned at Star Wars Celebration, she is a maintenance worker for the Resistance. She has the largest new part in the movie, and is involved in a mission behind enemy lines, something else we’ve long heard rumored. Together, Finn and Rose travel to a casino planet called Canto Bight, which we’d previously heard called Canto Bite. The place is described as looking like Monte Carlo.
Not pictured is Rose’s sister Paige. She is a gunner being trained by Poe Dameron. She is played by a Vietnamese actress named Veronica Ngo. Though we don’t get to see her in these Annie Leibovitz photos, we do get to see DJ, Holdo and Rose.
