Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Kathleen Kennedy Confirms SPOILER Stays Alive

12/04/2015 05:27 pm EST

Star Wars: The Force Awakens producer Kathleen Kennedy has confirmed that the first female villain in a Star Wars movie, Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma, will be returning for Star Wars Episode VIII

"She's an important character, a baddie in the best sense of the word," Kennedy told the Los Angeles Times.

Christie's chrome-clad Stormtrooper is already being compared to fan favorite character Boba Fett from the original trilogy. Christie says the comparison is apt.

"Which means she makes a lot of impact but she's not at the forefront of the action all the time," she says.

But Christie goes on to explain that what makes Phasma an important, exciting character to play is much more than simple cool factor.

"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 her not because 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."

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