Hello everyone out there in Star Wars fandom! We’re back to contemplate some of the leaks, rumors, and spoilers for the Star Wars films. Hopefully, we can connect the dots and make a concrete prediction about everyone’s favorite diminutive, orange pirate: Maz Kanata.

Maz Kanata in The Last Jedi

While we’ve known from Rian Johnson’s tumblr (above) that Maz would be in TLJ, only recently, Amanda Ward of MSW released some info regarding the role of Maz Kanata in The Last Jedi. According to the article, Maz Kanata will connect the heroes Finn and Rose to DJ, played by Benicio Del Toro. The character of DJ is a slicer, or a computer hacker from the Star Wars universe. We’ve speculated before that the reason why Finn and Rose need DJ is to get some code (bio-hexacrypt?) to enter Snoke’s ship. It’s interesting to note that Making Star Wars predicted this long before in a “Now, This is Podcasting” episode.

DJ is a “slicer”, but he’s not the only one in The Last Jedi. The character played by Justing Theroux is also rumored to be a slicer. Now before we jump to the conclusion that slicers are a TLJ-thing, keep in mind that they’ve been in Star Wars for a while. In fact, during the rise of the Empire, Han Solo had a slicer droid known as Blue Max that was kept inside another droid, BLX-5. This makes you wonder where someone would get a slicer droid…

So given this connection between Maz Kanata and slicers, it begs the question: will Maz show up in Han Solo?

Maz Kanata in Han Solo

It is actually pretty plausible that Maz will show up in the untitled Han Solo film. The reasons are numerous. First, there was a recent quote from Mark, who works for Funko, let it slip that Lupita Nyong’o would be in Han Solo during an episode of the Steele Wars podcast. While Mark could have misspoke, we do know that Funko gets early details on the movie for their product development.

If that wasn’t enough, a quick look at the Star Wars databank entry for Maz Kanata has the following line:

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.

This isn’t terribly surprising either. We know from The Force Awakens that Maz and Han go “way back”, so it is a possibility that Maz Kanata helped Han Solo get started as a smugger. She is a pirate, and has a lot of connections to the underworld.

Smugglers, Pirates, and Slicers

Smugglers, pirates and slicers have in common the criminal element, or all being part of the underworld. Maz proves to have slicer connections in TLJ, so perhaps she provides Han with the same connections in the Han Solo film? The Maz databank entry states that she gives smugglers “equipment or connections” and a droid, like Blue Max, would be both. If it wasn’t for the fact that Blue Max has masculine programming I would think that Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character would be a possibility because she is rumored to be a droid. However, the role could be changed from Legends. The story could establish Maz’s slicer connections by having her supply Han with Blue Max–an important piece of equipment to be an effective smuggler.

We could also expect to see some mention of why she calls Chewbacca her “boyfriend” in The Force Awakens. Either way, these films provide an excellent opportunity for Lucasfilm to add some “connective tissue” to the Star Wars saga by setting up Maz’s connections with slicers in the underworld in TLJ, and expanding up it and her past with Han in the Han Solo film. Time will tell how they actually play this out, but it would be tough to pass up this opportunity. Stay tuned.

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