Benicio Del Toro Is Not Playing Ezra Bridger In Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Ever since Benicio Del Toro was announced to have joined the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi a year ago, fans have been theorizing left, right and centre about who he could be playing. Some think he might be Rey’s dad, while others think he could even be the son of Boba Fett. The most common fan theory, though, is that Del Toro is playing Ezra Bridger. However, that has now been well and truly debunked.

For those not familiar with the franchise’s animated output, Ezra is the main character of Star Wars Rebels. Throughout the series, his arc has mirrored that of Luke Skywalker – and presumably Rey. He began as someone with Force potential and then grew into a Jedi who has to deal with the temptation of the Dark Side. A young man in the TV series, the casting of the 50 year-old Del Toro as Ezra would roughly make sense with the timeline – plus, they both have awesome eyebrows.

Still, this is apparently not the case. In an interview with Good Morning America, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson responded to the question of whether Del Toro is playing Ezra, saying simply that the character “is his own person.”

Is Benicio del Toro playing Ezra from @StarWars Rebels? @rianjohnson says no, but "DJ" does stand for something…#TheLastJedi #D23expo pic.twitter.com/wHGPvvlaD5

— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 16, 2017

The director also teased us with what DJ stands for. We learned a few months ago that Del Toro’s character was being referred to on set with those initials, but we weren’t sure at the time if this was just a codename. Johnson is still coy about that in the video, but he has confirmed that it does stand for something – and logic dictates that it’s not Ezra Bridger.

We’ll find out exactly who Benicio Del Toro is playing when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theatres on December 15th.