The question of who JJ Abrams is planning to kill in The Force Awakens has been a pertinent one ever since the trailer seemed to show a dead hero. We've all been promised escalated threat, a rising enemy force and new super-powered villains and traditionally that all spells potential tragedy. So maybe don't get too attached to anyone. But at least some of the cast have to survive: this is a trilogy after all, and JJ Abrams seems to be following George Lucas' model of storytelling to the point of mirroring. So someone has to survive long enough to find out they're actually someone else's brother/sister/daughter/long lost Jedi overlord. At this stage it is vastly unlikely that anyone at Lucasfilm has even entertained the idea of killing off BB-8 (and John Boyega's assurance that he will steal the film for kids seems to further that), but that's still an assumption. And of course, it's equally as unlikely that Abrams would introduce a villain with a name like Supreme Leader Snoke and then kill him off too. But again, no confirmation yet. The business here is finding evidence that characters are definitely returning, whether through leaks, accidental confirmations or official mentions. And surprisingly for a film that has been so notoriously tight on security, there have actually been a few notable ones.
6. Captain Phasma
When it was announced that Captain Phasma was only going to appear briefly in The Force Awakens it set theorists to thinking that the chrome trooper was going to be spectacularly killed off for effect. But now, thankfully, it seems that Gwendoline Christie's incredibly striking villain will get the chance that Darth Maul never got to return for a second bite of the cherry. The Evidence This all comes down to Kathleen Kennedy, who is such a big fan of Phasma that she made a point of celebrating her in public (as did JJ Abrams incidentally, who called Christie's performance his favourite in The Force Awakens). She spoke to The LA Times who confidently confirmed Phasma's return in the sequel:
Kennedy has big plans for Phasma and confirmed that the captain will carry on into the next movie. Shes an important character, a baddie in the best sense of the word.
Kennedy may also have confirmed her continued presence in the press conference with a loaded gesture too, but more of that soon. And of course Lucasfilm surely wouldn't pull a Boba Fett a third time and kill off their coolest character... Would they?
