When Disney purchased Lucasfilm, there was immediate excitement for the potential of new Star Wars movies. It wasn’t long after the deal that Disney announced a new Star Wars prequel trilogy that featured old and new characters. The hype had immediately become something many haven’t seen. Soon there would be new toys, comics, books, video games, and so much more.
By the time Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, Star Wars merchandise has grossed 5 billion dollars. One of the reasons for the massive success would be the hype surrounding the new characters fans would be getting introduced to. One character to receive a lot of the hype was what seemed to be a new chrome armored Stormtrooper played by Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie called Captain Phasma.
Captain Phasma was featured in almost all the promotional items at the forefront with the other new characters like Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren. Leading up to the release of the film, it looked like Captain Phasma was going to be a major presence in the movie. It was The Force Awkens’ release on Dec. 25, 2015, when fans were let down by Phasma’s low screen time and what seemed to be uncelebrated death by being thrown into literal trash, thusly being Boba Fetted. For many fans, the treatment of the character did not match the way Disney marketed the character. In The Force Awakens, Captain Phasma didn’t even rally 2 minutes of screen time making her appear not even 2 percent of the movie’s run time.
Many expressed disappointment in the way the character was shown and treated. Following the release of The Force Awakens, fans wanted to see justice for the character. Luckily it seemed like Captain Phasma would be getting the actual treatment many thought she would get in the first place. Rian Johnson who had made the sequel to The Force Awakens had stated that Phasma would be back, and many news outlets stated that she would be getting a bigger role. Not only that, but Captain Phasma would be getting her own novel and comic book. On the road to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, author Delilah S. Dawson would be writing a novel on the backstory of Phasma’s life and writer Kelly Thompson would be writing a 4 issue comic about what had happened to Phasma after being thrown into the garbage shoot and during the destruction of the Starkiller base. It seemed that the writers and producers had listened to fans and were going to do something about it.
When The Last Jedi was finally released many fans were eager to see what Rian Johnson would do with Captain Phasma. Did Captain Phasma finally get the recognition she deserved? A big no. She had roughly the same amount of screen time in The Last Jedi as she did in The Force Awakens, and she was yet again unceremoniously killed off, being Boba Fett-ed for a second time. Although for many fans this wasn’t shocking, it was disappointing to see a character that was used so much in the hype of the return of one of the biggest franchises of all time, to only being squandered and wasted by those who over-hyped the character in the first place. Although, at times the disappointment of Captain Phasma’s treatment was overshadowed by the many other disappointments that the film brought to fans of the franchise, like Finn’s side quest and Luke’s character arc.
However, there are a couple of chrome-plated silver linings to Star Wars’ treatment of Captain Phasma. One is she did get a novel and short comic run to herself. Even though they aren’t as prominent as the billion-dollar movies that she was hinted at being a major role in, many other disappointingly used characters don’t get their own novels and comics. It is still a big deal she was able to get her own focus at all. But perhaps the biggest silver lining that has come from Disney’s large success of Star Wars shows is the possibility of a return.
As mentioned before, Captain Phasma was hyped and unceremoniously killed off very much in the same vein as Boba Fett, who just recently returned in season 2 of The Mandalorian and was given his own show in The Book of Boba Fett. With the huge success of the Star Wars series’ based on our favorite masked characters, we could possibly see Phasma return in other live-action spin-offs or possibly even a show of her own-although the possibility of that is quite low due to her being extremely heartless and evil in the spin-off novel and comic book she was given, therefore having her own entire series wouldn’t be the best idea as she isn’t so relatable to fans.
As hopeful as that can be, it doesn’t change the disappointment many Star Wars fans felt with the mistreatment of a character many were excited to see on the big screen. A novel and 4 issue comic doesn’t make up for it either when compared to the original hopes of seeing everything that hardcore Star Wars fans saw in the books in the films worth billions of dollars. But perhaps it is only a matter of time until fans see Phasma once again on the small screen.
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