SPOILER WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Solo: A Star Wars Story. Proceed at your own risk.
Enfys Nest has been shrouded in mystery ever since there was any news about the character appearing in Solo. Everything from whether Nest was an antagonist or ally, to the character’s gender, has been called into question. It’s not until the climax of Solo that we find out who Enfys Nest really is – a young woman intent on thwarting Dryden Vos’s Crimson Dawn crime syndicate and proving herself a thorn in the side of the Empire. She might also just have proved herself the most significant new addition to the franchise.
Throughout the film, Nest and her gang of Cloud-Riders are painted as the enemy of Tobias Beckett’s crew, which includes Han Solo. Beckett is attempting to deliver a consignment of valuable hyperfuel coaxium to powerful gangster Dryden Vos, who will pay top dollar.
But at every turn, they’re confronted by Enfys Nest’s gang. It’s a jaw-dropping moment when Nest actually reveals herself to be aligned with Solo. She wants to get her hands on the coaxium not only to prevent it falling into Vos’s clutches but also as a valuable resource to help fund a nascent rebellion.
“It’s the blood that brings life to something new,” she says of coaxium. “A rebellion.”
Significant or Symbolic?
Enfys Nest’s closing words will make the hairs on your neck stand to attention. Could Enfys Nest be a key instigator of the Rebellion – one that to date we’ve heard nothing about? Our knowledge of the early days of the Rebellion is that its founding members were Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Padmé Amidala. But could Enfys Nest also have had a big role to play? Or is it simply that her particular rebel cell merely becomes integrated into the larger movement at some point?
It’s possible that she and the Cloud-Riders exist purely for thematic reasons. They could be relatively insignificant, instead simply representative of the growing sense of unrest and the early rumblings of rebellion. A bit like ‘Broom Boy’ from the end of The Last Jedi, who director Rian Johnson insists is not important as a character, but exists symbolically to convey the idea of hope.
More to Discover
But what if she’s more important? Solo takes place 10 years before Rogue One and A New Hope, so Nest could have presumably spent the intervening years laying the foundations for the Rebellion, selling her coaxium haul and spending the proceeds on assembling resources and recruits.
We learn very little about her character, save for the fact that she appears to be cut from the same cloth as her mother, who resisted the Empire when they plundered her home planet for resources. With loose ends left untied and avenues opened but not explored in Solo, the way is paved for a sequel or two in which we could learn more about Enfys Nest. With details about her still sketchy, it seems there’s a larger reason for her concealing her identity with a mask and voice distorter than simply not wanting to be caught. Is she hiding her past? Who was she really, before she became Enfys Nest?
A Saw Gerrera Crossover
Her gang is also full of intriguing characters who could benefit from further development. One of which is a Tognath known as Tubes. This is interesting because there are clear links here with a couple of characters introduced in Rogue One. Two of the members of Saw Gererra’s extremist rebel gang are Tognath ‘eggmates’ Benthic and Edrio ‘Two Tubes’. If Enfys Nest crew member Tubes has anything to do with these guys, it could mean that future films might explore a crossover with Enfys Nest and Saw Gerrera. Bringing Forest Whitaker’s fan favourite character back into the film franchise.
We demand to know where Enfys Nest fits in now that Solo has seen fit to draw attention to her potentially huge contribution to the entire saga, and look forward to news of a Solo sequel to answer these nagging questions.
Solo is in cinemas now.