Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Benicio Del Toro's Character Explained
Find out what DJ really means...
As is always the case with Force Friday, Star Wars fans took every opportunity to get out and get their hands on the first merchandise for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with retail industry wide events designed to part as many fans from their hard-earned as possible.
Inevitably, the Porgs and BB-8 (and the evil twin version) were the hottest buys (just as LucasFilm probably planned) adn Funko's tie-in Pop Vinyls were top of a lot of lists. And despite Rian Johnson's claim that there won't be any spoilers in the toy line this time out, there is an interesting detail about Benicio Del Toro's mysterious character in there...
Thus far, all we really know about Del Toro's character is that he goes by the name "DJ" - at least that's what Rian Johnson and the crew call him - and thanks to a Funko Pop Vinyl, we now know WHY they call him that.
On DJ's Pop Vinyl, there's a tag on his hat, written in Star Wars universe language Aurebesh, which MakingStarWars has now translated (thanks to Twitter user Ugur Baran Morkoc) to read "Don't Join".
So DJ = "Don't Join", which definitely isn't his real name.
It's an interesting little detail too, as it seems to suggest that DJ is some sort of resistor. It's not clear at this point whether he's urging people not to join the Resistance or the First Order - it could actually be both. But it's hard to imagine that urging people not to join the First Order is a little redundant, since they don't really canvas for support as much as press-ganging people.
Perhaps he's just a chaotic neutral, who realises the folly of choosing a side when they all amount to the same thing (an underlying fact of the Dark/Light Side divide) and who operates entirely outside of the dynamic. All we really know about him is that he is a hacker, and that sort of self-conscious liminal existence would suit the stereotypical image of that sort of role.
It also casts some doubt on where his true allegiance lies, or whether he can be fully trusted, which is obviously going to present some problems for those looking to use him in a mission. So maybe expect some fireworks.