By now we’re all well acquainted with the secrecy surroundingStar Wars: The Force Awakens, but I know one person who will probably be pretty thrilled when this thing finally hits theaters:Rian Johnson. TheLooperfilmmaker is writing and directingStar Wars: Episode VIII, which starts production imminently, but he’s been unable to say pretty much a single word about it for fear of spoiling aspects ofThe Force Awakens. After all, Lucasfilm wouldn’t want to ruin a character’s fate by announcing that person is or isn’t part of theEpisode VIIIcast.
Well now we know at leastonecharacter who’s coming back for the sequel. As part of a pretty great feature inthe L.A. Timeson the women of the newStar Warsuniverse, Lucasfilm presidentKathleen Kennedyconfirms that early fan favorite Captain Phasma, played byGwendoline Christie, has a role inEpisode VIII:
Kennedy has big plans for Phasma and confirmed that the captain will carry on into the next movie. “She’s an important character, a baddie in the best sense of the word.”
Phasma—or the “Chrometrooper” as she’s called—was initially intended to be played by a male before Kennedy andJ.J. Abramsdecided to swap the gender of the character. She quickly caught on with fans after her unveiling, even as we still know very little about her. But Christie says the character was borne out of a desire to create a more complex female character than Hollywood tends to offer:
“We see women in a different range of roles in the film,” Christie says. “And the reason I love my character so much and I feel so enthusiastic about Capt. Phasma is, yes, she’s cool, she looks cool, she’s a villain — but more than that, we see a female character and respond to hernotbecause of the way she looks. We respond to her because of her actions. I think we’re a society that has promoted a homogenized idea of beauty in women — and in men — and I think it’s really interesting, modern and necessary to have a female character that isn’t about the way her body looks. It isn’t about her wearing makeup. It’s not about her being conventionally feminized. The idea of this enormous legacy and franchise embracing an idea like that, which of course to many of us feels logical, is actually really progressive. And long overdue.”
This, along with the fact thatDaisy Ridley’s Rey is one ofForce Awakens’ main characters, bodes well for the future of the franchise, especially in a blockbuster climate dominated by testosterone-heavy or gender traditional films.
And knowing that Phasma turns up again inEpisode VIIIis actually a “spoiler” I can get on board with. We previously learned that Phasma doesn’t have a massive role to play inThe Force Awakens, so it’s great to know that we’ll have an opportunity to see the character fleshed out further in at least one more film.
Star Wars: The Force Awakensopens in theaters on December 18th, whileStar Wars: Episode VIIIis slated for release on August 26, 2025.
