While last year’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” was the end of a trilogy and the finale for the Skywalker Saga, that doesn’t mean the film didn’t overtly set up some potential future stories and spin-offs. Most notably, new characters like Jannah (Naomi Ackie) and Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell) were introduced but not given a ton of scenes, leading many fans to hypothesize that there are more stories with those folks down the line.
In a new interview with Digital Spy, actress Naomi Ackie opened up about the idea of playing Jannah in ‘Rise of Skywalker’ and what the future might hold for her mysterious character (that is likely the daughter of Lando, right?).
“Getting the ‘Star Wars’ role was really surreal,” Ackie said. “I loved playing Jannah because she’s strong and brave. She’s one of the first black female leads to enter the ‘Star Wars’ universe in 41 years and I felt the importance of that. For me, it was about everything from having natural, textured hair to not being shy of talking about what more the industry needs to do.”
Now, are there any future plans for a Jannah spin-off, whether that be on TV or the big screen? The actress does say there’s plenty of material to explore, if the time comes.
“Jannah was a completely new character and I like the idea that the ‘Star Wars’ universe is expanding,” she said. “I think Jannah could get a spin-off. She has a really rich backstory that JJ [Abrams] told me about, and a future that we still don’t know about.”
As for any concrete plans for a Jannah spin-off project, the actress mimed the “my lips are sealed” gesture and said, “That’s my answer.”
After the fairly mixed reaction to ‘Rise of Skywalker’ (with the social media conversation being more negative than positive), it’s hard to imagine that Lucasfilm is going to rush out a spin-off based on a character that was arguably short-changed in the film and didn’t necessarily inspire much fan excitement. That being said, clearly, the studio is exploring lots of different options on Disney+, so the idea of Jannah getting more screen time on TV isn’t that far-fetched.
‘Rise of Skywalker’ is expected to hit Disney+ on May 4. You can watch the scene that sets up further Jannah adventures below:
