Some Spoilers If You Still Haven’t Seen Star Wars For Some Reason
Many of you have Freebie Fived Oscar Isaac. (Lainey: Step OFF. I saw him first!) While I have not, he has become one of the most interesting actors to watch—did you see Show Me a Hero? He’s TREMENDOUS—and I have also developed an appreciation for his magnificent head of hair. Oscar Isaac has A+ hair game. Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in New New Star Wars has A+++ hair game. In a movie that also features Adam Driver’s leonine mane, Domhnall Gleeson’s ginger crop, Harrison Ford’s “I don’t give a f*ck” shag, and Chewbacca, Isaac still has the best head of hair. Look at this man. Look at his hair. It is superb.
And though he’s not in The Force Awakens for very long, Isaac makes a HUGE impression as Poe. Some of that is his magnificent hair, windblown and rakish, but a lot of it is just that Isaac is an insanely compelling actor who, in a very short time, established Poe as a dashing ace pilot, and the kind of guy you really want on your side during a fight. But he was originally scheduled to die, according to Isaac. Talking to GQ he said that JJ Abrams pitched him the character as having a big opening and then dying in act one (in the TIE fighter crash with Finn, no doubt). It was only after talking with Isaac that Abrams found a way to keep Poe around because duh, you do not waste Oscar Isaac like that. Just ask The Bourne Legacy.
This jives with the way Poe disappears for a while and then just shows back up with very little explanation of how he 1) survived, and 2) got from A to B (save your breath nitpickers, Poe’s in-movie explanation is weak and borders on nonsensical). I don’t need an entire movie about Poe walking out of the Jakku desert, but like, one establishing shot showing him heading into a settlement just to let us know, Hey, this guy survived and is making his way home. Also maybe account for why he made no attempt to recover BB-8 on Jakku? He promised BB-8 he’d come back for him! (Lainey: BB-8 is fine. Could the entire world please stop worrying about that manipulative little famewhore?! God.)
Anyway, what I got out of this is that JJ Abrams decided to keep Poe Dameron around because Oscar Isaac has magical hair.
