Gwendoline Christie has confirmed she will return to the role of imposing villain Captain Phasma in the forthcoming sequel to box office record-breaker Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Speaking to People magazine at the Screen Actors Guild awards on January 30, Christie also said she hoped her achievement in winning the part of a character originally written for a man would encourage greater diversity in Hollywood. “I will be in the next Star Wars movie. I think that’s an exclusive, actually,” she said. “I was very overexcited. I made no secret of the fact that I really campaigned for the part for a long time. And then I was delighted when JJ 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.”
Christie, 37, added: “I thought the costume was incredibly striking. I also just liked this notion of a female stormtrooper. 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.” The Game of Thrones actor has previously said she was particularly pleased to note that Phasma’s chrome-plated costume remained unaltered once she was confirmed in the role.
“I was struck by how incredible it looked, but also I liked that it was stormtrooper armour,” she told People earlier this month.
“It hadn’t been sexualised or feminised in any way. I thought, ‘That is interesting. That’s very modern.’”
Captain Phasma, a stormtrooper leader in the First Order cabal, is expected to be given a bigger role in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is now due to debut in December 2017 after being pushed back from May next year.
In other Star Wars news, the first DVDs of The Force Awakens are reportedly set to go on sale on 5 April in the US. JJ Abrams’ film is expected to reach $2 billion (Dh7.34 billion) in global box office takings some time this week.
