Poe Dameron almost didn’t survive long enough to be hated by Star Wars fans

One word that can certainly be used to describe the new crop of Disney-produced Star Wars films is “divisive.” Despite the films’ box office success, there doesn’t seem to be a single scene or character from the new trilogy that supposed fans of the franchise can all agree is good. Even Poe Dameron—the traditional, daring fighter pilot, always ready with a quip—gets a fair amount of hate for being, well, a traditional, daring fighter pilot that’s always ready with a quip. Interestingly enough, in a new video from GQ, Oscar Isaac revealed that originally Poe wasn’t even going to be around long enough to be worth all the hate.

“I met with [J.J. Abrams] and Kathy Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan and we sat in an office and they pitched me the story,” Isaac says, describing how the director then laid out the basic beats of Poe’s introduction at the beginning of Force Awakens. “He’s Leia’s number one pilot … and you have a scene with Max von Sydow and the main bad guy shows up and then you die … spectacularly!” It was that last bit that didn’t sit well with Isaac. He felt that at that point in his career he’d played enough disposable characters in cold opens that set things in motion for the real main characters, and he was almost ready to pass on the role.

But, after going home and thinking about it, Isaac realized he couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to be in a damn Star Wars movie. Lucky for him, by the time he called Abrams to confirm, the director told him, “Actually, we’re changing it up. He’s in the whole movie now. It’s going to be really cool.” With that, Poe Dameron’s place in the Star Wars universe was secured, and angry dudes on the internet were guaranteed a chance to complain about him for a least a couple more movies.

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