TR-8R: The Breakout Star Of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Has ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ given us the new Boba Fett?

The official release of ‘Star Wars 7’ saw an outpouring of love for a certain First Order stormtrooper… and oddly, we don’t mean John Boyega’s Finn. Instead, the internet has gone wild for a stormtrooper dubbed TR-8R by the fans.

And if you’ve already seen the movie, you’ll know exactly why.

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Our heroes first encounter TR-8R when the First Order descends on Maz Kanata’s castle. Remember the Riot Control stormtrooper with a cool baton? That’s TR-8R… and when you realise just who it is, his new nickname becomes a little more obvious.

Confronting Finn amidst the wreckage of Maz’s castle, the riot control stormtrooper clearly has a bit of a vendetta against the would-be resistance defector… and calls Finn a ‘traitor’ for having turned his back on the First Order.

As fans took a liking to the character, he became known as ‘TR-8R’ for obvious reasons… and this obsession has even spawned a collection of memes.

But there may be a bit more to him than we thought.

Although most of assumed that TR-8R was merely a random stormtrooper, the folks at SlashFilm put forward a compelling argument that he’s actually known Finn for some time, and he might even have a far more personal reason to call him a traitor.

“The book ‘Before the Awakening’ appears to give our favorite First Order stormtrooper a backstory,” they explained. “In the book, we learn that Finn grew up as part of a four-man fire-team consisting of himself (FN-2187) and three others (stormtrooper numbers FN-2199, FN-2000 and FN-2003). His training mates have earned the nicknames Nines, Zero, and Slip, the first two based on their numerical designations and the last one because he often slips up.”

“Slip is the stormtrooper who leaves a bloody handprint on Finn’s helmet at the raid of Kelvin Ravine in the beginning of the movie,” they added. “But what about TR-8R? Some fans theorize that the riot control stormtrooper is probably one of his other two stormtrooper friends: Zero or Nines. The fight seems to be very personal, and the stormtrooper seems to recognize Finn without his mask or uniform, so it makes sense.”

But could this really be someone from Finn’s past?

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a backstory woven into the fabric of a seemingly throwaway character – just look at the implied history between Han Solo and Boba Fett in the original trilogy.

And perhaps TR-8R gives us a glimpse of that in ‘The Force Awakens’.

Will he return? For now, we’ll have to wait and see… but after taking a shot to the chest courtesy of Han Solo, it’s not looking good for everyone’s favourite stormtrooper.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ opened in cinemas on 17 December 2015.

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Picture Credit: Lucasfilm.