To put it bluntly, Canto Bight is “a playground, basically, for rich assholes.” One of the characters you won’t find mingling with this crowd for pleasure is Gwendoline Christie’s Captain Phasma. She’s got more important things to attend to. The first time we see this character unmasked is in the photos that were released, and when talking about that he explained: 

“I think a big part of the allure of her character was just wondering what might be underneath. It was only relatively recently that we wanted to commit to the idea that there was a human under there. The Force Awakens left that question, but as we got further into Last Jedi, as well as some other stories we’re thinking about with Phasma, we had to ask ourselves, ‘All right, do we agree there’s a human under there?’”

It’s then revealed that Phasma will also have a new weapon that she’ll be wielding in the film. Hidalgo says that it “doesn’t have a fancy name yet” but it’s described as a “retractable pole arm that collapses into a smaller, easy to carry form should she ever find herself shoved down a trash compactor again.” The weapon also is said to have a strong connection to is Phasma’s history, which is going to be explored in a comic-book series out in September. Hidalgo teases that her background “is more low-tech than many would assume.”