New Details on Lupita Nyong'o's Character Maz Kanata in THE FORCE AWAKENS
Thanks to director J.J. Abrams, we have some new details to share with you about Lupita Nyong'o's character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The character's name is Maz Kanata and she is a pirate queen. This character was first spotted on the poster for the movie. She's the small alien who is wearing goggles. She also is the character who speaks the following line in the first TV spot:
“I have lived long enough to see the same eyes in different people. I see your eyes. I know your eyes."
Abrams confirmed that in an interview with EW:
“That’s Maz. I had some specific ideas about how she would work and what she would do. 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.”
The director went on to reveal that Maz had a very long life before settling down in her castle, which includes "a court of misfits and miscreants." This is where she will be found in The Force Awakens.
“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.
That's all the information that Abrams was willing to dish out, but he does say that we can expect to get eventually get a backstory for her.
“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.”
So I imagine her story will eventually be told in books, comics, and maybe even an animated series? She seems like the kind of character that could easily pop up in Star Wars Rebels somewhere down the road, especially if she's been around that long.
For more information on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, click here.