Just in time for today’s government-mandated celebration of Star Wars, a wealth of new set photos and other behind-the-scenes reveals has gone up at Vanity Fair, including the first real look at Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. Many Bothans died and/or didn’t write about the Kennedys this month to bring us this information.
We also must acknowledge that old smoothie Annie Liebovitz, that card-player, gambler, scoundrel of a celebrity portrait artist who captured those first looks in a photo set that is exclusive to the magazine, so we can’t embed them here. But you can see some of them in this behind-the scenes video. They’re like photos that move.
The article also contains some of the first official information regarding Driver’s Kylo Ren, a “next-generation bad guy” who’s seen commanding Snowtroopers “loyal to the evil First Order on the frozen plains of their secret base.” Though no one has yet confirmed it, Ren’s all-black ensemble suggests a connection to the Sith, as well as the fact that he sucks at hiding in the snow. In the portrait that we can’t legally share here, Driver is seen without a mask or even face paint, striking fear in the heart of the galaxy with his normal petulant glare alone. Imagine this photo of Driver from Girls, but where he’s irritated at the Rebellion instead of a babbling Allison Williams.
It also offers some details on Lupita Nyong’o’s character Maz Kanata, which will be entirely animated with motion-capture. Maz is a pirate who also owns a castle where “galactic travelers, smugglers, and assorted riffraff” congregate, like an intergalactic Radisson. Liebovitz’s portrait is just a close-up of Nyong’o’s face covered in small white dots that, again, we can’t reproduce here. But here’s a mock-up of what we assume her space pirate character will look like once it’s fully rendered in CGI.
Yes, yes. It looks like this is coming along nicely.