Justin Theroux is in the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Despite appearing in beloved movies and shows since 2005, Theroux’s face slides out of my mind as easily as your name the first five times we’re introduced. But more interesting than the casting announcement is the character Making Star Wars says he’ll be playing: a slicer.
It’s a cool name for an un-Star Wars concept. Slicers are hackers. They’re experts in breaking encryption, which seems like a useless skill in a galaxy with R2 units running around everywhere with their USB dicks.
Theroux’s slicer character shows up in a white tuxedo (or the sci-fi equivalent) during a part of Episode 8 shot in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It sounds like his slicer abilities will come in handy during a sequence set in an alien casino (which, btw, is the most likely place for Lando Calrissian to make a surprise appearance).
That’s about all we know about Theroux’s character. He’s a hacker in a sci-fi universe that has never needed hackers before. Even in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, stealing the Death Star plans involved the gigantic Imperial version of a Chuck E. Cheese claw game. It’s an analog world.
So cross your fingers that writer and director Rian Johnson can make a hacker work in a Star Wars movie. It sounds dumb as death sticks, but Johnson’s earned a little faith after Looper and Brick. We’ll see if that faith will be rewarded when Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres Dec. 15.
