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How Enfys Nest Connects to Other STAR WARS Movies

Ever since the first Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer debuted, the character of Enfys Nest has been surrounded by many questions. Enfys was presumed to be a villain, and maybe even the arch-villain of the movie, though there were clearly secrets surrounding this pirate. Merchandise featuring Enfys was held back from the first wave of toys, and copy from the Hot Wheels packaging suggesting the character’s gender was swiftly taken offline, leading some fans to suspect it might be Qi’ra in disguise. The fact that, as of this writing, imdb doesn’t even list an actor for Enfys has only bolstered that theory.

If you’re reading this, you probably know by now that it isn’t Qi’ra. Yes, Enfys is female, but not a familiar character; rather, she’s the latest in a quick and wonderful succession of Disney blockbuster characters who are teenage girls more tech-savvy than their father/older brother figures (following Black Panther‘s Shuri and A Wrinkle in Time‘s Meg). In this case, said figure is perpetual frenemy Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), whose plans she constantly thwarts by stealing his hauls, while he cannot manage to kill her.

Nest’s crew of air pirates are the latest manifestation of a swoop gang, which is a long-standing concept in the Star Wars universe. The first incarnation of such a concept was in Marvel’s Star Wars comic, issue eight, which is also notable for debuting Jaxxon, the green space-rabbit who remains alternately beloved and derided by fans who remember him. The Cloud Riders of Aduba 3, not unlike bandits in a samurai movie, would attack and pillage the nearby village of Onacra once a year; in a move straight out of Seven Samurai, Han Solo and Chewbacca formed a team to stop them, and ultimately prevailed. (Said team had eight members, rather than seven, presumably for copyright protection.)

The Cloud Riders had fairly blocky vehicles; swoop bikes were more codified as souped-up speeder bikes when Hasbro made a toy version for Shadows of the Empire. In this multimedia storytelling event, the swoop gang in question were bounty hunters working for Jabba the Hutt. Enfys Nest’s versions are more elaborate, using the hot rod aesthetic of so much of George Lucas’ work to imply each pirate would probably customize their own, both for aesthetics and effect.

Nest’s gang also includes a few familiar faces. There’s a gold-skinned Rodian, which marks a rare appearance of a classic Star Wars alien race in the Disney-era films. And then there’s Edrio Two-Tubes (or possibly his egg-mate, Benthic), a Tognath who was part of Saw Gerrera’s partisans in Rogue One, and last seen (in an earlier time period) saving Ezra and Sabine on Star Wars Rebels. Warwick Davis is here as well, and while he has played multiple Star Wars characters across many movies, the end credits confirm that here, he’s reprising the role of Weazel, an arms dealer whom we saw in the podrace audience of The Phantom Menace. And for the first time, Davis actually gets to speak a line of non-alien dialogue.

Weapons dealer, radical idealist, and teenage genius pirate: together, they mark the beginnings of the underworld branch of the Rebel Alliance, and represent Han’s brighter future, which he’s running from for now. Qi’ra, representing his past, is still out there, but as we learn by the end of Solo, her path is going in the opposite direction, towards a certain dark side wielder whose existence represents the franchise’s older era and whose already known fate speaks to a doomed path.

Are you hoping to see more of Enfys Nest? Let us know in comments.

Images: Lucasfilm, Amazon/Jack and Jill

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