Exclusive: Benicio del Toro is Puerto Rican for Billy Dee Williams
SPANISH HARLEM, NYC – In the most literal mirroring of the original Star Wars trilogy yet, our resident linguist Prof. Gu Berenstain has confirmed the name Benicio del Toro roughly translates to Billy Dee Williams in Nuyorican, a dialect spoken by Puerto Ricans north of 115th Street. While many Star Wars fans have predicted del Toro would play a character similar to infamous scoundrel Lando Calrissian, this is the first linguistic proof that the brooding actor was chosen because his name “rhymed” with that of Williams.
“Utilizing a combination of pigeon, hand jive and taino sounds, I’ve managed to create a code to reverse engineer the meaning of Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez. I’m happy to report it means Willy Dee Williamson,” said Berenstain.
Miraculously, the professor claims to be on the verge of another breakthrough that could net us the name of del Toro’s character in The Last Jedi by applying the same code to the name Lando Calrissian.
Of course, this represents a natural evolution of Disney’s callbacks and “rhyming” of the original Star Wars films in order to introduce the saga’s lore to a new generation. Whereas The Force Awakens served to soft reboot A New Hope with a shiny coat of CG paint and diversity, The Last Jedi looks to carry the torch and re-tell the story of Empire Strikes Back in a familiar yet ever so slightly new way.
To recap what we know of del Toro’s character thus far: he is mysterious; he wears a cape; he is an ethically challenged individual with a heart of gold; he runs a sweet casino. Sound familiar?
According to Berenstain, del Toro and Williams’ names are a dead giveaway that they are the same archetype: “Even their acronyms are similar. BDT versus BDW. In Nuyorican cursive the t and the w are indistinguishable from each other. This is no mere coincidence.”
While FSW stands by the professor’s findings, we do call into question rumors of Williams appearing in the film with del Toro, perhaps sharing a scene or two. How would this work if they are essentially the same character?
“Archtype! Not the literal same character! They can be onscreen at the same time. It would rob the scene of narrative tension, but I’ve seen worse,” remarked the professor.
In any case, we can’t wait to see del Toro’s cape and hairstyle in The Last Jedi. He has very big shoes to fill if he is in fact mirroring Willams and Lando — still the smoothest cats in the universe.
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-William “Willybobo” Bobo
