Gwendoline Christie has confirmed that she will return as Captain Phasma for the next installment of Star Wars.
She revealed the news on the red carpet at Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“I will be in the next Star Wars movie. I think that’s an exclusive, actually,” she told PEOPLE.
She also spoke eagerly regarding her excitement of taking on the role, originally written for a male.
“I was very overexcited. I made no secret of the fact that I really campaigned for the part for a long time,” she said. “And then I was delighted when J.J. Abrams wanted to have me in the film and then wanted to cast me in this role that had originally been designed for a man.”
“I thought the costume was incredibly striking,” Christie said. “I felt it encouraged diversity and it was doing something new and it was an interesting bit of casting for women, and I hope that in something that was such a mainstream success it would breed more of those kind of opportunities for other women.”
Star Wars Episode VIII will be directed by Rian Johnson and is scheduled to premiere on December 15 of 2017.