Captain Phasma is officially returning.

On the red carpet for Saturday night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gwendoline Christie told PEOPLE in the video above that we haven’t seen the last of her female stormtrooper captain.

“I will be in the next Star Wars movie. I think that’s an exclusive, actually,” she told PEOPLE.

Christie also spoke on the red carpet about how she landed her role as everyone’s favorite chrome stormtrooper, which was initially written as a male character.

“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.”

The Game of Thrones actress added that she was thrilled about the fan reaction to Captain Phasma, who — spoiler alert — was last seen in The Force Awakens with Finn and Han Solo, who had decided to push her down a garbage chute shortly before the Starkiller Base exploded.

“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.”

FEBRUARY 15, 2016 6:14am PT by Rebecca Ford
'Star Wars: Episode VIII' Adds Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern
Newcomer Kelly Marie Tran also has joined the cast of the film, which started shooting Monday.

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis are all returning for the follow up to The Force Awakens.

Rian Johnson wrote and will direct the film, which continues from the events of The Force Awakens. Star Wars: Episode VIII is produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski.

Disney and Lucasfilm also released a first teaser for the film (watch below). Star Wars: Episode VIII is slated for release Dec. 15, 2017.

Del Toro was most recently seen in Sicario, Inherent Vice and Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s repped by CAA, LBI Entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson.

Dern’s credits include 99 Homes and Wild, and she’s recently worked on Sundance film Certain Women and The Founder with Michael Keaton. She’s repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Gang, Tyre.

Tran is a relative newcomer (as was Ridley when she was first hired to star in the franchise). Her credits include the Netflix's indie XOXO with Sarah Hyland and the College Humor series. She has recurring credits on TV shows like NBC’s About A Boy, Amazon’s Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and TruTV’s Adam Ruins Everything. She's repped by Talent House LA and Arc Artist Management.