This Star Wars fan theory suggests who Benicio del Toro is playing in Episode VIII

We’ve got a name. We’ve got a date. But there are still plenty of unanswered questions relating to Star Wars Episode VIII, aka The Last Jedi.

And prime among them is what role Oscar-winner Benicio del Toro will be playing, which, in typical Star Wars fashion, has led to a host of speculation.

We know he’ll be a baddie, but exactly what sort of baddie will he be? Well, there’s a neat fan theory suggested by one Redditor (the excellently-named Darth_Hodor), which places del Toro right in the thick of the action.

They suggest that Episode VIII will tie in with the animated Disney TV series Star Wars Rebels, which is set 14 years after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and five years before Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s currently in its third series, with a main character named Ezra Bridger, a young neon-blue-eyed orphan that goes on to become a Jedi Padawan.

The theory goes that Rebels will end with Bridger joining Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy, before turning to the dark side and then joining up with Snoke to manipulate the Jedi, beginning with Ben Solo (who, of course, goes on to become Kylo Ren).

Bridger has a daughter – Rey – and Luke, upon realising what is happening, hides her from her father on Jakku, before fleeing off to the rock that we found him on at the end of Episode VII. Bridger and Snoke then destroy Skywalker’s Jedi temple in retaliation. And who will play Bridger – father of Rey and good-guy-turned-bad? Our good friend Benicio del Toro.

By the time of Episode VII, Bridger would be 51, meaning that 49-year-old del Toro would be the right age to play the character in his first appearance in the ‘main’ filmic story.

But Darth_Hodor doesn’t stop there – our guy theorises that, once Bridger has caught up with his daughter, he manages to turn her to the dark side; while at the same time, Kylo Ren begins moving back to the light side, setting up “a fantastic finale between these two characters in Episode XI”.

How’s that for a plot theory? It sounds good to us; whether it’s true or not is, of course, something we won’t know until December.