Poe Dameron

• 1. Introduction

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  Poe Dameron holds, in the words of one British newspaper, the title of "Second Coolest Man in the Galaxy." That single line hints at how quickly viewers connected this pilot to a certain smuggler from an earlier era of the same saga. Yet the character nearly took a very different shape before Oscar Isaac ever stepped in front of a camera. What was Poe supposed to look like at first, and why did the plan change? How did the actor's own choices shape a role that would carry him across three films? The part also extended into an animated series, television specials, novels, and comics. And what made critics keep reaching for the same comparison, film after film?

• 2. Almost Written Out

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  During early development of The Force Awakens, the role that became Poe Dameron went by the placeholder name "John Doe." Writers first pictured him as a black man in his 30s or 40s, a very different figure from the one Isaac would eventually play. At various points the character was floated as a Jedi, then as a bounty hunter, possibly paired with a Wookiee sidekick. The idea eventually settled into something plainer, described simply as "a Republic military man." When Isaac was offered the part, the script still had Poe dying early in the story. Director J.J. Abrams rewrote those pages so the pilot survived through the entire film. The character's surname came from Abrams's own assistant, a woman named Morgan Dameron.

  That reprieve left the studio with a fresh problem: how to introduce a survivor nobody had originally planned to keep around, using a cast built to make its own kind of statement.

• 3. A History-Making Cast

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  Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers wrote that "giving starring roles to a black man, a white woman and a Latino is... quietly history making." Isaac took on the role at the center of that ensemble, a casting choice critics like Travers singled out for attention. A television spot for the film aired on the Spanish-language network Univision, aimed at Spanish-speaking viewers, and opened with Isaac introducing himself in Spanish. A promotional poster featuring Isaac as Poe circulated ahead of the film's release. Some of Poe's lighter, comedic lines in the finished film were never scripted at all; Isaac improvised them on set.

  None of that swagger came from a page handed down in advance. Collaborators and the actor himself later described, in their own words, exactly what they thought made Poe tick.

• 4. In His Own Words

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  "He's been sent on a mission by a certain princess, and he ends up coming up across Finn, and their fates are forever intertwined," Isaac said of Poe in 2015. He also called Poe "the best freaking pilot in the galaxy," a pilot defined less by rank than by instinct. Natalie Zutter and Chris Lough of Tor.com wrote that "Poe is that rare creature who knows exactly what he wants to do with his life."

  In a separate 2015 interview, Isaac said, "Poe's the kind of guy you want in the trenches with you. He's straightforward, he's honest, he's incredibly loyal and he's got some swagger to him." Slate's Katy Waldman described him as "star pilot, heartthrob, wiseass, ace leather jacket-bestower, Finn's OTP," adding that "When he grins up at Kylo Ren, all rakish charm and derring-do, we know the movie will be OK."

  Charles Soule, creator of the 2015 Marvel Comics series Star Wars: Poe Dameron, said, "I think it's his charisma that really defines him, for me... his ability to lead and inspire feels pretty fresh to me, as is his somewhat snappy roguishness." Alex Segura, author of Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, called Poe "charming, a bit of a scoundrel, not afraid to bend the rules" while still "driven by loyalty and legacy, and friendship."

  Segura went further when discussing Poe's early life in Free Fall, explaining that Poe carries "a lot of responsibility, to his parents' legacy, mainly," a weight that clashes with his own "youthful curiosity and desire for adventure." After finishing work on The Last Jedi but before its release, Isaac said in 2017 that "Poe is in some ways a surrogate son for Leia," someone she hopes to shape "from a heroic soldier to a seasoned leader."

  Those same instincts, for loyalty and for trouble, were about to be tested against real battle conditions for the first time.

• 5. From Hotshot To General

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  General Leia Organa sends Poe to the planet Jakku to retrieve part of a map showing the location of her brother, Luke Skywalker. When the First Order arrives, Poe hides the map inside the droid BB-8 and sends him into the desert alone. Kylo Ren captures and tortures Poe, searching for the map's location. A stormtrooper breaks Poe free, and together they escape the First Order in a stolen TIE fighter. During the flight, Poe gives the stormtrooper a new name, Finn. Their ship is hit by missiles and crashes on Jakku. Finn is thrown clear and assumes Poe died when the wreck sinks into the sand. Poe resurfaces later, leading an X-wing squadron, and personally fires the shots that destroy Starkiller Base. According to the film's novelization, Poe was actually thrown from the TIE fighter and survived, later helped toward safety by a Blarina scavenger named Naka.

  Released in 2017, The Last Jedi finds the First Order closing in on the Resistance almost immediately. Once the transports escape, Leia orders Poe to pull back, but he presses ahead to destroy a First Order Dreadnought instead. His bombers succeed, but the entire crew is lost in the attack. Leia demotes Poe to Captain for the recklessness and for disobeying her order. Vice Admiral Holdo is promoted over him instead of naming Poe acting general, and she dismisses his proposals. Poe secretly plots with Finn and the mechanic Rose Tico to disable a First Order tracking device. When Poe learns Holdo plans to abandon a vulnerable ship, he stages a mutiny against her. Leia, freshly awakened, stops the uprising and resumes command herself. The Resistance then flees to the planet Crait, where Poe leads a failed offensive before escaping through an uncharted passage while Luke Skywalker distracts Kylo Ren. Behind the scenes, director Rian Johnson had originally planned for Poe to join Finn on a side mission to Canto Bight. He found their dialogue interchangeable and "flat," so he created the character Rose to pair with Finn instead.

  Set one year after The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker follows Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca as they retrieve information from a mole inside the First Order. They travel with Rey and C-3PO to the planet Passanna and locate a Sith dagger pointing toward Exegol. There, a resurrected Emperor Palpatine commands the Sith Eternal's Final Order fleet. After Chewbacca's apparent death, the group lands on Kijimi and meets Poe's old contact, Zorii Bliss. She reveals that Poe once worked as a spice smuggler and abandoned his crew to join the Resistance. Zorii nearly kills Poe out of lingering resentment but relents after Rey defeats her in combat. She later urges Poe to finish what the Resistance started instead of joining her travels across the galaxy. Then she helps him board a Star Destroyer to rescue Chewbacca. Aboard the ship, Poe and Finn are captured and saved only when General Hux reveals himself as the mole aiding the Resistance. After Rey departs for Exegol and the group learns that Leia has died, Poe is named acting general and struggles under the responsibility. Lando Calrissian counsels him to lean on his friends, and Poe makes Finn his co-general before leading the final assault on Exegol. The Resistance appears badly outnumbered until Lando arrives with a fleet gathered from across the galaxy. Victory follows soon after, alongside the deaths of Kylo Ren and Palpatine. Back at the Resistance base, Poe reunites with Zorii, Finn, and Rey in celebration.

  Poe's story didn't end with that reunion. Long before that celebration, writers had already been filling in his life story across books, comics, and animated shorts, starting with a novel published the same year as his debut film.

• 6. Expanding The Story

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  Cecil Castellucci and Jason Fry first mentioned Poe in the young adult novel Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, published in 2015. That story is set between The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980, and Return of the Jedi, released in 1983. Greg Rucka's Before the Awakening, also from 2015, gathers stories about the early lives of Poe, Rey, and Finn ahead of The Force Awakens. Rebecca Roanhorse's 2019 novel Star Wars: Resistance Reborn covers the Resistance rebuilding itself after the events of The Last Jedi. Alex Segura's novel Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, released on the 4th of August 2020, explores Poe's early life and his connection to Zorii Bliss.

  Yavin 4, the moon that served as the Rebel base in the original 1977 Star Wars film, became Poe's established homeworld in the 2015 comic series Star Wars: Shattered Empire. Isaac had learned that the real-world shooting location for Yavin 4 was Tikal, in his native Guatemala. That detail became part of the character's own backstory. Shattered Empire introduces Poe's parents as Rebel Alliance fighters. His mother, Shara Bey, was an A-wing pilot who adventures alongside Leia, while his father, Kes Dameron, served with a ground unit called the Pathfinders, led by Han Solo. A separate Marvel Comics series, Star Wars: Poe Dameron, was written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Phil Noto, running from April 2016 to September 2018. Its story begins shortly before The Force Awakens and eventually crosses into the events of both that film and The Last Jedi.

  Poe's animated and interactive lives were only beginning. The pilot would soon turn up in places far removed from any printed page or bombing run.

• 7. Screens And Playgrounds

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  Isaac voiced Poe himself in the 2018 animated series Star Wars Resistance, which ran through 2020. A Lego version of the character, alongside BB-8, appeared in the 2016 short-form series Lego Star Wars: The Resistance Rises, with Lex Lang providing Poe's voice, and in a short titled Poe Dameron vs the First Order Snowspeeder.

  In the 2020 special The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, Poe celebrates Life Day alongside Finn, Max Rebo, and Chewbacca's family while Rey secretly travels through time. The 2021 follow-up, Terrifying Tales, sends Poe and BB-8 to Mustafar for emergency repairs, where they meet a crime lord named Graballa the Hutt converting Darth Vader's old castle into a hotel. The castle's caretaker, Vaneé, a former servant of Vader, spins three wildly inaccurate stories about the artifacts inside. Vaneé then tricks a young, Force-sensitive mechanic named Dean into opening a Sith holocron, using it to grant himself artificial Force sensitivity and Sith armor. Poe and Dean knock Vaneé into lava during the resulting fight, and Poe, impressed, offers to bring Dean to Rey for Jedi training. Poe also appears in a third special, Summer Vacation, released in 2022.

  Poe became a playable character in the 2015 Force Awakens expansion for Disney Infinity 3.0, complete with a separate figurine. He also appeared as a playable character in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes in 2015, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2016, and Star Wars: Force Arena in 2017. Poe was planned for the mobile game Star Wars: Rivals before it was cancelled, and his personal X-wing starfighter can be flown in Star Wars: Battlefront II. In the theme parks, Poe appears in Star Tours - The Adventures Continue and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with Isaac reprising the role for both attractions.

  All of this, an animated pilot, a Lego action figure, a theme park queue, built a version of Poe most casual fans never saw. It was still the three sequel-trilogy films that shaped how professional critics talked about him.

• 8. The Next Han Solo

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  Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called Isaac "a primary asset as Poe Dameron." He added that, like Ford's Han Solo in the original three films, Poe is "the guy you want on your team, the one who doesn't take any guff." Robbie Collin of The Telegraph described Poe as "a dashing, dry-humoured swashbuckler," writing that "he's like Han Solo was 40 years ago." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called the "hotshot" pilot "a man very much in the Solo mold," while Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that Poe "suggests a next-generation Han."

  Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that "Isaac has more than a bit of Han Solo swagger," and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post praised the "cocksure street smarts" Isaac brought to the role. Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone credited Poe's "loose, jazzy dialogue" as an early sign the new films would feel "more human in tone" than George Lucas's prequels. The Telegraph separately praised Poe's scenes for how they "spark and fizz with energy." Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, reviewing the finished film, wrote simply that "Isaac oozes flyboy charm." Tor.com's Alex Brown called Poe "the greatest addition to Star Wars canon since Mara Jade," a popular character from the earlier expanded universe.

  Some critics felt differently about one particular reveal, arguing that it sat awkwardly against the Poe audiences already knew from screen, page, and animation. Separately, journalists and fans noticed a strong chemistry between Poe and Finn. Joanna Robinson of Vanity Fair and Scott Mendelson of Forbes both wrote about it, and USA Today's Brian Truitt called their bond a "bromance." Robinson went further, writing that "the most important bond Isaac established was with John Boyega," calling their dynamic "a flirtation that launched a thousand pieces of fan fiction." That fan enthusiasm, and Isaac's own public support for a romance between the characters, never translated into The Rise of Skywalker's script.

  Maryann Brandon, who edited both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, said she never saw a romance develop in the footage, admitting she was "not reading as much into it as an audience." She described Poe and Finn instead as "best of friends," adding that "there is a kind of brotherhood there where they understand each other, and they've got each other's back," a bond fans keep reimagining long after the trilogy's final scene.