It wasn’t Han Solo, or Chewy, or Luke, or Finn, Rey, Poe or BB-8 that stole the show in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — it was the bad arse Stormtrooper that yelled “Traitor!”
And now he has a name.
If you’ve been online, you certainly have seemed various memes and videos associated with the Stormtrooper (aka TR-8R), and now LucasFilm has revealed his name.
The Stormtrooper is known as FN-2199, but his friends call him “Nines,” and Nines is also a part of the Greg Rucka’s Star Wars book, Before the Awakening:
Nines trained and served on a squad with Finn (then FN-2187) in the First Order (see image below). That explains why he seems just a little extra angry upon seeing Finn during the attack on Maz’s Castle.
The name of Nines’ mace is also revealed; it’s a Z6 Baton.
He’s riot control, and part of an elite squad that enforces order or squashes uprisings. While their weapons are non-lethal in theory, the Z6 can definitely cause harm or kill an opponent when used with brute force.
Skywalker Sound sound editor David Acord provided the voice, and while Nines did get blasted by Han Solo, maybe we’ll see him again in a galaxy far, far away…
Update: Nines is played by Liang Yang, a veteran stunt performer.