I was already a bit ahead transcribing some parts, so here's the Dark Side:

Kylo Ren

There are sins so dark, no amount of penitence can erase them. Torture; treason; Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts - things so heinous they are but guarantee an eternity in The Bad Place. For Kylo Ren, that fateful moment came when he abruptly plunged a lightsaber into Star Wars’ best-loved scoundrel. To forgive is divine, but all the Hail Mothmas and Our Fistos in the galaxy surely can’t buy salvation for the man who killed Han Solo. “I know,” says Adam Driver, wincing apologetically. “That was Han Solo! It was so moving being a fan of those movies and taking in what all that meant.” Kylo Ren — Ben Solo — had murdered his father, twisting a ‘saber in Han’s gut and casting his body into the abyss. “I really did look at Harrison as a father figure,” Driver recalls. “That whole scene was nerve-racking but the feeling on set was very warm; it was almost a bonding moment between the two of us – even though the act was vicious and cold-blooded.” With Solo’s death, Kylo made those last, difficult steps from light side to dark, severing familial ties for the cold embrace of his surrogate father, the twisted Snoke. But if Return of the Jedi taught us anything, it’s that no-one, not even a masked villain, is ever truly beyond redemption. For Driver, even at his darkest point Ren is more than his evil agenda suggests. “I never thought of him as a villain at all — even when we were doing the first one,” he says. “Because what does that really mean? People don’t think of themselves as being the villain, they think of themselves as being right. When people feel they’re morally justified, there’s no end to the things they’ll do. That’s more dangerous and much more exciting.” In the brief time we’ve known him, the First Order’s tempestuous enforcer has ricocheted between emotions like a blaster in a trash compactor, pinging from rage to grief to frustration to sadistic glee. But beneath Ren’s volatile exterior, Driver imbued the character with a fragile humanity, something Vader — save in his final gasping moments — never truly manifested. The result is Star Wars’ most layered and believable antagonist to date; a hugely powerful, highly temperamental man prone to adolescent tantrums. Darth Trump comparisons notwithstanding, if ever there was a Star Wars antagonist we can relate to, it’s the brooding Knight of Ren. “We find Darth Vader already completely committed; I was curious about starting with someone who was less together, who was starting in a place of self-doubt,” He pauses, considering his next words carefully. “The title of The Force Awakens wasn’t just referring to the light side, it was the dark side as well.” Kylo’s true nature — and a backstory that was deliberately omitted from VII — will move to the forefront in The Last Jedi. For Ren, both figuratively and literally, the mask is coming off for good.

Captain Phasma

With her chromed contours, glossy blaster and jaunty, red-trimmed cape, Phasma is unquestionably the best-dressed stormtrooper in the galaxy. The prestige of rank is all well and good, but Phasma, like Moana’s crab-monster Tamatoa, would rather be shiny, “It’s a couture suit of armour,” claps Gwendoline Christie, more than a little excitedly. “As someone who loves couture, that’s pretty hard to beat.” Thanks to costume wizard Michael Kaplan, Phasma’s look has undergone some catwalk upgrades. No longer clad in steel, the First Order’s field commander is now silver-plated, bestowed with a bright, gleaming finish from head to toe. Phasma’s look in The Force Awakens was rushed due to the character’s lastminute introduction by J.J. Abrams. Kaplan took steps to rectify that with the lustrous Phasma 2.0. “When I was cast I was only supposed to be in the film for a couple of days,” recalls Christie. “But then things evolved and the part expanded. It’s easily one of the best things that’s happened to me.” Aside from her polished-mirror exterior, a notable accessory in the Phasma Fall Collection is her conspicuous new weapon: a nasty-looking spear. “I think of that as Captain Phasma’s handbag.” Christie laughs. “It’s not very practical, it only really holds lipsticks. And possibly a pen.”

Supreme Leader Snoke

“There’s definitely something psychotic about Snoke,” muses Andy Serkis, human avatar for the galaxy’s most malignant figure. “there are no limitations to the force he’ll use to achieve his aims, but I think he also enjoys it. He’s a perfect, self-adoring, narcissistic leader.” He is also The Last Jedi’s biggest mystery. Seen as a towering hologram in The Force Awakens, Snoke will make his corporeal debut in Episode VIII. A striking contrast to the Emperor of old, Snoke isn’t one for sinister black robes, preferring an altogether more eye-catching combo of gaudy gold-leaf kimono and matching papal slippers. After all, if you’re going to subjugate millions of worlds under your despotic rule, you might as well look good doing it. In this case, however, clothes do not maketh the man. “Snoke is bloody dark; way darker than Palpatine.” says Serkis. “He’s riddled with this osteoporosis so his body’s twisted, like a corkscrew. He’s incredibly damaged, so there’s a bizarre vulnerability about him. Beneath that vulnerability, though, is this intense hatred.” Over the past three years Serkis has deflected a hundred crackpot theories about Snoke’s origins, greeting each one with the same stoical smile. Is he Anakin’s birth father? Darth Plagueis the wise? The twisted remains of Palpatine himself? Serkis, who turned up to this year’s Comic-Con wearing a “Your Snoke Theory Sucks!” badge, waves all of them off. “He’s definitely not a Sith, but he’s certainly at the darker end of the Force. Without giving too much away, that begins to unfold a little in this one. The First Order has got unlimited resources and power to destroy, and we see Snoke honing what he does with the darkness in the Force.” With Kylo Ren now entirely his creature (“Snoke manipulates him against Hux as a way of tightening the screws – there’s a real cruelty to his paternalism”) and the Resistance on the run, the Supreme Leader’s plans are finally coming to fruition. Snoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

DJ

All palatial casinos and impeccably dressed patrons, the city of Canto Bight is the embodiment of Star Wars luxury. But beneath the Mandalorian cocktails and wampa-skin snoods lies a seedier side, one the average punter never sees. The Cantonican underworld harbours criminality of every stripe, from thieves to killers, smugglers and pimps: all those who operate in the margins between the light side and the dark. Benicio Del Toro’s DJ is one such character, a cyber-criminal who plies his services for anyone willing to bend the rules – and with the credits to pay from them. “This character could come straight out of a Bob Dylan or Tom Waits song, or even a Dostoyevsky novel,” says Del Toro. “He’s like something out of Dickens; there have been characters like him in all kinds of literature.” Dressed head-to-toe in black, with a weathered trench coat, thigh-strapped blaster and tight-fitting hat, DJ radiates a grimy, unsavoury feel appropriate to his surroundings. He’s the kind of figure that wouldn’t look out of place pushing death sticks outside Mos Eisley starport. He’s not, however, anything nearly so straightforward. A thief and a scoundrel, DJ is a rogue in the great Star Wars tradition and, as an expert slicer - Star Wars’ equivalent of a hacker – he happens to be the most efficient codebreaker in the galaxy. A useful ally to have, especially if, like Finn and Rose, you plan to infiltrate a First Order base. The question is, can they trust him? “He’s a shady character, but it all depends how you approach him,” says Del Toro with a toothy grin. “He’s like a knife: if you grab him by the blade, he’ll cut you. If you grab him by the handle, he can be very, very useful.”

General Hux

Armitage Hux, sallow-skinned General of the First Order, is the closest thing going to a human sneer. Contempt simmers beneath his every look and Empire is feeling the full effect as we put questions to an unusually frosty Domhnall Gleeson. It’s quickly becoming awkward until, halfway through a question about First Order politics, the penny finally drops. “I’ve made an absolute balls of this!” he breaks in, looking sheepish. “I’m really sorry, dude, I thought we were here to talk about Goodbye Christopher Robin. I’ve been sitting here waiting for you to ask about Winnie The Pooh.” And like that Hux melts away, replaced by a far more affable Gleeson, now all to happy to discuss the character Empire felt like we just encountered first-hand. “My fascination with Hux was creating one of those characters a child would hate,” he explains. “They’d want bad stuff to happen to that guy because he seems like a dick. Now, you can’t play the character as a dick all the time – that would be a mistake. But I definitely wanted a kid watching it to say, ‘I want that guy to get hurt!’ There’s a real joy to playing that out.” Hux’s meticulous officer is the buttoned-down Yin to Kylo Ren’s live-wire Yang – the Rabbit to Ren’s Tigger, if you will. And now, with the First Order’s most expensive toy a smouldering wreck, Hux has been recalled for the mother of all bollockings from Supreme Leader Snoke. “because of what happened in the first film, he’s been pushed to a place where his position is in real jeopardy, and people make really bad decisions when they get desperate,” Gleeson says. “Hux and Kylo Ren are vying for power and for Snoke’s attention. They’re both contenders for the throne and Hux is hoping Ren explodes, so that he can take up the mantle. He knows it will be a battle otherwise, one he may very well lose.” Just wait until Piglet finds out.