Star Wars: Gwendoline Christie reveals why Captain Phasma kept helmet on in The Force Awakens

Before the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released in December 2015, fans made no secret that one of the characters they were looking forward to seeing the most was shiny chrome stormtrooper Captain Phasma. Writer and director JJ Abrams did call her his favourite and, to add to her appeal, she just so happened to be in charge of the all the other stormtroopers; and she was played by none other than Brienne Of Tarth herself, Gwendoline Christie.

Unfortunately, it turns out Phasma was not in the film for very long and whenever we did see her, she never one removed her helmet. But according to Christie, there is a good reason for that. While promoting the upcoming sixth season of Game Of Thrones, the topic of Star Wars came up.

"I thought it was a really interesting opportunity because as an actor I'm interested in transformation and different kinds of roles. I thought it was a really interesting opportunity to play a female character where we formed an opinion of her based on her actions rather than the way she has been made flesh," the 37-year-old told Entertainment Weekly.

"And that concept within a Star Wars movie, a mainstream phenomenon, was very modern and interesting and exciting. To be in it as that kind of character – she's a woman, she's in armour, the armour isn't sexualised, and in the film we don't see the actor's face – I thought that was an exciting, modern concept."

It is a good thing that Christie is so keen to don the heavy-looking helmet too, as she'll have to do it at least once more now that she has been confirmed to be starring in follow-up Episode VIII as well. Fans of hers were disappointed at her lack of screen time in The Force Awakens, so here's hoping for a little more character development next time round.

While we do not know anything about the plot of Star Wars 8 so far, Christie's co-star John Boyega previously admitted the next instalment will be "much darker" than The Force Awakens and his part will be "much more physical". Filming began earlier this week, ahead of Rian Johnson's Episode VIII being released in the UK on 15 December 2017. It will be followed by Colin Trevorrow's Episode IX in 2019.

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