‘Star Wars Episode VIII’: Who’s coming back in the next movie?

Now that we’ve seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we can’t but wonder what’s next. What will happen to the old Star Wars characters and all of the newly introduced cast? It’s too early to tell what’s going to happen next – and Disney will surely not reveal anything until it wants to – but at least we know which actors from The Force Awakens are coming back from Episode VIII.

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Not too long ago, Mark Hamill revealed that he will return to Episode VIII, even though he was not able to explain what Luke’s up to in The Force Awakens. In addition to Hamill, everyone else will pretty much return to Episode VIII, which may pleasantly surprise fans who have already seen the movie.

According to The Evening Standard, Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the entire cast of The Force Awakens will return to the next firm. “There will be a handful of new cast members in Episode VIII but also all the cast members you see here tonight will be in it as well,” Kennedy said.

There were plenty of members in attendance, SlashFilm says, including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Gwendoline Christie, Lupita Nyong’o, Max von Sydow and Adam Driver.

Benicio del Toro is expected to join the cast as a bad guy, although Kennedy didn’t say anything about him. Furthermore, Kennedy added that filming for the next episode will start in January. Episode VIII hits theaters on May 26th, 2017.

“We’re excited to get back together,” she said. “We start shooting Episode VIII in January, we’ve been prepping the movie for the last year and (writer-and-director) Rian Johnson has been doing an amazing job.”

The Force Awakens grossed more than $500 million worldwide during its opening weekend, which would certainly explain why Disney’s in a hurry to get back to filming.