'Star Wars' will bring back new trilogy characters for future adventures after 'Episode IX'

Star Wars will conclude the Skywalker saga with the recently-titled The Rise of Skywalker, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have to say goodbye to all of the characters from the new trilogy.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has revealed they plan to bring back some of the main characters for future Star Wars adventures, as well as some of the newer individuals introduced in the latest trilogy.

Speaking to MTV News, she said: “You know, there is an appropriate time. We’re using this appropriate time as an opportunity to see where we’re going now that we’re leaving the Skywalker saga behind.

“But there’s no question that there’s certain characters that we’ve created, certainly in the last three movies, that we may very well wanna see down the line in the future.”

Read more: J.J. Abrams admits ‘there’s more to the story’ of Rey’s parentage in ‘Star Wars IX’

Kennedy also teased the possibility of more “smaller” Star Wars projects for Dinsey’s streaming service, following the release of The Mandalorian.

“We also have huge opportunities with Disney+ now to be able to look at that space and find perhaps even smaller stories, grittier stories,” she said.

“And yet The Mandalorian, which debuts in November, has huge scope and scale, so we’re just excited about what the potential is for the kind of things that we can do.”

Read more: George Lucas’s favourite Star Wars character is Jar Jar Binks

So could Rey, Finn, Poe or the porgs make an appearance in a spin-off TV series or movie? We’ll have to wait and see, but one character we do know is making a dramatic comeback for The Rise of Skywalker is none other than The Emperor.

In the first official trailer for the film, Emperor Palpatine’s unmistakable cackle could be heard as the screen cut to black. Director JJ Abrams has since confirmed that the previously-thought-dead Sith Lord will definitely feature in the trilogy’s final instalment.