Captain Phasma will return for Star Wars: Episode VIII, Gwendoline Christie confirms

Captain Phasma did not meet an untimely demise in a garbage chute, actress Gwendoline Christie confirmed on the 2016 SAG Awards red carpet.

"I will be in the next Star Wars movie. I think that's an exclusive, actually," the actress told People Magazine.

Captain Phasma's chromed stormtrooper armor and inimitable style (the cape! the walk!) grabbed fans' attention very early on in the media blitz surrounding the new Star Wars trilogy. But in the end, her appearances in Star Wars: The Force Awakens were far smaller than many had hoped. Her lines were few and far between, she never even appeared without her mask and in the end Han Solo, Chewbacca and Finn literally threw her in the trash.

Of course, there are three movies in a trilogy, and just because a character doesn't feature heavily in the first doesn't mean we won't see more of them later — provided, of course, that Phasma survived her close encounter with Starkiller Base's sewage system.

Fortunately, it appears that she has. Christie was frank about how excited she was to be reprising the role, not least for breaking the barrier of becoming the first prominent female stormtrooper on screen.

"I also just liked this notion of a female stormtrooper," she told People. "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 premiere Dec. 15, 2017.