Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character & Vehicle Descriptions

Check out official descriptions for the characters found in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as StarWars.com has updated their Databank with various info, some of which is not known from watching the movie.

Rey

Rey is a Jakku scavenger, a survivor toughened by life on a harsh desert planet. When the fugitive droid BB-8 appeals to her for help, Rey finds herself drawn into a galaxy-spanning conflict. Despite dismissing herself as “no one,” she learns that her life is being shaped by the mysterious power of the Force.

Rey grew up on Jakku, eking out a life as a scavenger and hoping that one day whoever had left her on the barren desert world would return. She learned how to survive, becoming a gifted mechanic, pilot and warrior. But she seemed destined to live out her days on a forlorn backwater world, ignorant of the larger galaxy and its perils and possibilities.

Rey’s life changed when she encountered BB-8, a Resistance astromech carrying a star chart offering a clue to the location of the long-lost Jedi master Luke Skywalker. Rey and the renegade stormtrooper Finn forged an unlikely friendship, escaping Jakku and finding themselves caught in a galactic war – with both of their destinies shaped by the awakened power of the Force.

Finn

FN-2187 was trained since birth to serve the First Order as a stormtrooper, but a skirmish on Jakku awakened his conscience and drove him down a different path, one that proved both heroic and dangerous. He helped Poe Dameron escape the First Order – picking up the nickname Finn in doing so – and then sought his own freedom alongside Rey and BB-8.

Finn grew up known only as FN-2187, a product of the First Order’s quest to create super-soldiers by training them from birth. He proved a capable soldier in simulations, though he lacked the zeal for combat shown by some of his squadmates. The First Order’s raid on Jakku awakened FN-2187’s conscience, and he decided to desert and make his own way in the galaxy. 

FN-2187 lacked pilot training, so he freed the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron from captivity. The two stole a TIE fighter – with Poe giving the stormtrooper the nickname Finn – and crash-landed on Jakku. Thinking Poe had died in the crash, Finn joined forces with the scavenger Rey and the astromech BB-8 in search of a way off the desert world.  

Posing as a member of the Resistance, Finn escaped Jakku and made his way to Takodana. There, he faced a choice: leave Rey and seek his fortune in the Outer Rim, or join the Resistance and fight the First Order he had once served.

Poe Dameron

Poe Dameron is a commander in the Resistance’s Starfighter Corps and one of Leia Organa’s most-trusted operatives. The son of a rebel fighter pilot and a rebel commando, Poe grew up on stories of Alliance campaigns. A decorated X-wing pilot, he can fly anything – which is fortunate given how often his headstrong nature leads him into trouble.

Kylo Ren

A dark warrior strong with the Force, Kylo Ren commands First Order missions with a temper as fiery as his unconventional lightsaber. As a leader of the First Order and a student of Supreme Leader Snoke, he seeks to destroy the New Republic, the Resistance and the legacy of the Jedi.

A dark side warrior with a mysterious past, Kylo Ren was neither Jedi nor Sith, but a product of both sides’ teachings. Once an apprentice of Luke Skywalker’s, he killed his fellow students and drove Skywalker into exile, becoming a First Order warlord and servant of Supreme Leader Snoke. Kylo was determined to destroy the last remnants of the Jedi, fulfilling the legacy of Darth Vader.

Both the First Order and the Resistance were determined to locate Lor San Tekka, a galactic scout rumored to know how to find Skywalker. Kylo found San Tekka on Jakku and killed him, but not before San Tekka gave a bit of a star map to the Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. When Kylo captured Poe, he discovered the map was now in the memory banks of BB-8, an astromech on Jakku. By finding the lost droid, the First Order could locate Skywalker and extinguish the Resistance’s last hope.

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Supreme Leader Snoke

The Supreme Leader of the First Order, the mysterious Snoke has no permanent base of operations, preferring to contact his underlings from a mobile command post. Snoke is powerful with the dark side of the Force, and seduced Kylo Ren into abandoning the Jedi path to become his apprentice. But Snoke also commands General Hux and the technological war machine the First Order has engineered to destroy the New Republic and Leia Organa’s Resistance.

General Hux

A young, ruthless officer in the First Order, General Hux has complete confidence in his troops, training methods and weapons. A rival of Kylo Ren’s, Hux eagerly awaits the day when the First Order will bring down the hated New Republic, and considers it his destiny to rule the galaxy.

Hux spent his life in thrall to the idea of Imperial power – his father was an Imperial Academy commandant, whose radical ideas about training soldiers became a key part of the First Order’s vision. As commander of Starkiller Base, Hux revived another Imperial ideal: achieve military superiority through technological terror.

Captain Phasma

Clad in distinctive armor of salvaged chromium, Captain Phasma commands the First Order’s legions of stormtroopers. A tough veteran commander, she has no use for fancy titles or complex war rooms, preferring to lead her troops in battle against the First Order’s enemies.

Phasma served as one of the First Order’s commanding triumvirate, though she sometimes clashed with both the technocratic General Hux and the mysterious Kylo Ren. She worked tirelessly to make the First Order’s stormtroopers the galaxy’s finest soldiers, searching for any sign of weakness or disobedience in the ranks.

BB-8

A skittish but loyal astromech, BB-8 accompanied Poe Dameron on many missions for the Resistance, helping keep his X-wing in working order. When Poe’s mission to Jakku ended with his capture by the First Order, BB-8 fled into the desert with a vital clue to the location of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.A new-model astromech, BB-8 served the Resistance in the years after the defeat of the Galactic Empire, helping pilot Poe Dameron fly his X-wing. Together, Poe and BB-8 kept watch on the First Order.

When the First Order captured Poe on Jakku, BB-8 fled into the planet’s desert wastes, custodian of an important clue to the location of the lost Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. The plucky astromech soon became the target of a determined search by the Resistance, the First Order and the galactic underworld. 

Han Solo

After the Battle of Endor, Han became a rebel hero, helping Chewbacca liberate the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. But the good times were not meant to last. Han and Chewie lost their beloved Falcon amid more personal turmoil, and hunted endlessly for the lost freighter as they pursued shady smuggling deals. 

Leia Organa

After the Battle of Endor, the New Republic reached an uneasy peace with the remnants of the Galactic Empire. Believing the Empire was no longer a threat, the New Republic reduced its military capabilities, despite Leia’s warning that the Imperial remnants could not be trusted. When her concerns were dismissed as paranoid warmongering, Leia formed the Resistance, a secret military force that keeps watch on the restive First Order. 

Chewbacca

After the Battle of Endor, Chewbacca played a key role in liberating his homeworld of Kashyyyk from Imperial forces. The Wookiee and the Corellian earned renown as New Republic heroes, but the good times were not meant to last. Years later, amid the rise of the First Order, the two found themselves trying to make a semi-honest living in a chaotic galaxy.

Chewie and Han’s luck seemed to turn when they recovered their beloved Millennium Falcon, lost years before through a fickle turn of fortune. But the galaxy was once more engulfed by war, and as usual the two partners were in the middle of the trouble.

The First Order

The New Republic’s rise reduced the once-mighty Empire to a rump state hemmed in by strict disarmament treaties and punishing reparations. But in the galaxy’s Unknown Regions, former Imperial officers, nobles and technologists plotted a return to power, building fleets and armies in secret. This movement became the First Order, ruled by Supreme Leader Snoke, and is now ready to reclaim the Imperial legacy.

First Order Stormtroopers

The First Order’s infantry units wear stark white armor derived from that worn by the Republic’s clone troopers and the Empire’s stormtroopers. Members of this new generation of stormtroopers are trained from birth, growing up with unit designations instead of names and fed a steady diet of First Order propaganda to ensure absolute loyalty. Where the Empire opted for numbing routine, the First Order’s training simulations and live-fire drills encourage improvisation on the battlefield, making these stormtroopers more dangerous than their Imperial predecessors.

First Order Snowtroopers

First Order stormtroopers assigned to frigid planets such as Starkiller Base wear specialized armor and gear that let them operate effectively in icy conditions. Snowtroopers carry a backpack-style personal environment unit and wear insulated helmets with glare-reducing slit lenses, gloves, a kama, and a heat-resistant body glove beneath an oversuit of wind-resistant fabric. Snowtrooper teams scouted the planet that now houses Starkiller Base, eliminating native life forms that posed a potential threat.

First Order Flametroopers

These specialist stormtrooper units advance in conjunction with standard First Order infantry, using D-93 incinerators to flush out entrenched enemies with roaring sheets of flame. Flametroopers wear backpack-style propellant tanks, special helmets with slit-like lenses that reduce glare, and temperature-control body gloves beneath their armor. 

First Order Tie Pilots

Imperial pilots were treated as expendable, sent into combat in unshielded TIEs, but the First Order treats its fighter pilots as important parts of its war machine. Potential First Order pilots are identified as children and given rigorous training, often within the corridors of warships, then tested ruthlessly throughout their careers to ensure their reflexes, visual acuity and coordination measure up. Elite Special Forces fighter pilots bear red flashes on their helmets, and report to the upper ranks of the First Order hierarchy.

First Order Tie Fighter

Following the traditions of the Galactic Empire, the First Order has kept the TIE fighter design in service, but has updated the craft to modern combat standards.

First Order Star Destroyer – Finalizer

The powerful flagship shared by General Hux and Kylo Ren, the dagger-shaped Finalizer is nearly twice the length of an Imperial-era Star Destroyer. The first of the new Resurgent class constructed in violation of treaties with the New Republic, the Finalizer’s heavy weapons are augmented by two starfighter wings, a hundred assault craft and a full legion of stormtroopers. Her turbolasers are more powerful and faster to recharge than Imperial-era weapons, a product of kyber crystals harvested in the Unknown Regions.

First Order Transporter

The First Order’s stormtrooper transports – formally known as Atmospheric Assault Landers – are designed for the speedy delivery of up to 20 stormtroopers to the battlefield for ground operations. A pilot guides the transport to its drop zone from an elevated cockpit, while a gunner protects the no-frills craft during its final approach.

Starkiller Base

Deep in the Unknown Regions, the First Order has constructed a superweapon that uses an entire planet as its weapons platform. The deadly Starkiller harvests energy from its system’s star, contains it within magnetic fields inside its base’s planetary core, and then converts that energy into an ultra-powerful beam that blasts through hyperspace, able to sterilize the worlds of a distant star system with a single shot. The icy world that houses the Starkiller is the First Order’s greatest secret, and essential to its plan to conquer the galaxy. 

The Resistance

A small, secretive private military force, the Resistance was founded by rebel hero Leia Organa to monitor the actions of the First Order. Most New Republic power brokers tolerate the Resistance while regarding Organa and her fighters as dead-enders with an unfortunate fixation on the past. Organa’s cash-strapped movement relies on credits, ships and equipment quietly funneled to it from the few senators who share her concerns.

Resistance X-Wing

The Incom T-70 X-wing is the latest incarnation of a classic design, and the signature combat craft of the Resistance’s Starfighter Corps. Faster than the Alliance-era T-65s, Resistance X-wings are maneuverable enough to engage TIE fighters in dogfights, but powerful enough to take down capital ships. The credit-strapped Resistance relies on X-wings donated or lent by sympathetic New Republic senators and local security forces. During the assault on Starkiller Base, Poe Dameron flies a customized, dark-hulled X-wing under the call sign Black Leader.

Rey’s Speeder

Rey’s speeder is an ungainly but powerful repulsorlift vehicle built by the young scavenger from salvaged parts. The speeder is fast and can carry considerable cargo, making it ideal for use scavenging in Jakku’s Graveyard of Ships. Rey’s speeder is top-heavy and would be difficult for any other pilot to control – but fortunately Rey is a skilled pilot as well as an ingenious mechanic.

Jakku

A harsh desert world, Jakku is a lawless place that’s home to thieves, outlaws and refugees. During the final years of the Galactic Civil War, Jakku was the site of a secret Imperial research base and served as a jumping-off point for warships heading into the Unknown Regions. The Empire made a last stand above the frontier planet, leading to a pitched battle between rebel and Imperial fleets. Jakku’s sandy wastes are littered with old wrecks, picked over by desperate scavengers searching for parts that can be salvaged and sold.

Teedo

Teedos are small reptilian beings that prowl the wastes of Jakku, their features hidden behind mummy-like wrappings. Often found riding cybernetic pack animals called luggabeasts, they know many of Jakku’s secrets. Teedos make no distinction between individuals and the species as a whole, and are rumored to share knowledge in some unknown and perhaps unconscious fashion. Jakku’s scavengers treat them with respectful caution, wary of their unpredictable natures.

Luggabeast

Cybernetic beasts of burden found on frontier worlds, luggabeasts are a fusion of organic being and mechanical creation, with their heads hidden away behind heavy armor plating and optical instruments. Jakku’s Teedos use luggabeasts as pack animals, calibrating the cyborg creatures’ instruments to find droids and other valuable salvage.

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Unkar Plutt

A hulking Crolute, Unkar Plutt is the junkboss of Jakku, doling survival rations out to scavengers in return for salvage from the Graveyard of Ships. The ruthless Unkar uses hired muscle to enforce his stranglehold on barter, sending his thugs to punish any scavenger who dares dabble in unauthorized trades or negotiates too aggressively. The Blobfish – as scavengers call him behind his broad back — has collected all matter of weapons, gears and ships over the years, including a battered Corellian freighter he keeps under a tarp on the outskirts of Niima Outpost.

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Maz Katana

Maz Kanata is more than a thousand years old, a diminutive being with vast experience at surviving in the underworld. From her castle on Takodana, Maz has seen galactic powers rise and fall and felt the Force ebb and flow, seeking an elusive balance between darkness and light. She has given many a young smuggler a start by offering credits, equipment or connections, and helped many an old friend rediscover a lost path.

Maz’s Castle

The ancient edifice known as Maz’s castle sits on the shore of a lake on Takodana, a site rumored to have been a battleground for the Jedi and Sith. The castle is simultaneously aged and state of the art, with sensor grids and advanced communications gear sprouting from worn stone battlements. Inside Maz’s castle, pirates, smugglers, spies and all manner of scoundrels mix and mingle, searching for loans, information, equipment, repairs — or kicking back to enjoy music, food and drink or games of chance. All must obey their host’s prohibitions against politics or war.

Takodana

A lush green world in the galaxy’s Western Reaches, Takodana has long served as the base of operations for the diminutive pirate queen Maz Kanata, whose ancient castle is a haven for smugglers, brigands, scouts and spies from numerous worlds. Takodana has been largely spared war over the centuries, remaining neutral as galaxy-ruling regimes come and go around it.

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Guavian Death Gang

Known for its distinctive red-armored foot soldiers, the Guavian Death Gang is a criminal organization driven out of the Core Worlds by unrest in the galactic underworld. Guavian Death Gang soldiers undergo cybernetic augmentation, with a mechanical reservoir and pump injecting chemicals into their bloodstreams to enhance speed and aggression. They are silent in battle, communicating via high-frequency datastreams. Han Solo ran afoul of the Guavians for failing to repay their 50,000-credit loan.

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Lor San Tekka

A legendary traveler and explorer, Lor San Tekka is a longtime ally of the New Republic and the Resistance. After the Battle of Endor, San Tekka helped Luke Skywalker recover secret Jedi lore that the Empire had tried to erase, and Leia Organa hopes the old scout can now help find her brother. Following decades of adventure, San Tekka retired to live simply on Jakku, where he follows the dictates of the once-forbidden Church of the Force. But his retirement is fated to be anything but peaceful.

C-3PO

After the Battle of Endor, C-3PO served Leia Organa during the fight to defeat the Empire’s remnants and the uneasy peace that followed. After the rise of the First Order, C-3PO assisted Leia in her role as founder and leader of the Resistance. The protocol droid’s duties have expanded to include overseeing the movement’s network of spy droids, which operate across the galaxy.

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Snap Wexley

Temmin “Snap” Wexley is a pilot in Blue Squadron known as the best recon flier in the Resistance’s Starfighter Corps. Snap grew up on the Outer Rim world of Akiva, the son of a rebel Y-wing pilot who flew in the Battle of Endor. His recon flight of Starkiller Base helps the Resistance come up with a plan to destroy the First Order superweapon.

Tasu Leech

The leader of the Kanjiklub, Tasu Leech is a brutal street fighter. Leech grew up on the Hutt colony world of Nar Kanji and refuses to speak Basic, dismissing it as a “soft language for soft people” and preferring to let his Huttsplitter blaster rifle do the talking. Leech and his fighters confront Han Solo aboard his bulk freighter, angry that the Corellian has twice failed to deliver promised cargo.

Kanjiklub

An Outer Rim criminal organization, Kanjiklub is a rival of the Guavian Death Gang. But while the Guavians are cold and technologically adept, the Kanjiklubbers are street fighters, brawling with improvised tactics and wielding a hodgepodge of blasters, knives and clubs. The group’s wild style reflects their origins as renegade slaves of the Hutts. Kanjiklub has momentarily put aside its dispute with the Guavians to settle scores with a mutual enemy – the Corellian smuggler Han Solo.

Bala-Tik

An agent of the feared Guavian Death Gang, Bala-Tik’s black leather coat and percussive cannon indicate his status within the galactic underworld. Bala-Tik negotiates business for the Guavians, backed by faceless, voiceless cybernetic soldiers awaiting the signal to take action. Bala-Tik considers Han Solo a capable smuggler and a valuable source of information, but his patience with the slippery Corellian and his endless excuses has all but run out.