What's Next For The Cast Of Star Wars?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is not just one of the biggest movies of 2019. As the concluding installment in the Star Wars sequel trilogy that began in 2015, it's one of the most anticipated films of the decade, but even that's not saying enough. It's also set to give closure to the "Skywalker Saga" that began with the original Star Wars in 1977, giving it the potential to be one of the biggest movies of all time. 

A film on this scale requires a cast to match, and The Rise of Skywalker stars a dazzling mix of newcomers, sequel trilogy mainstays, and even some veterans who've been around since the franchise began more than 40 years ago. They've all come together to end this saga with a bang... but what comes after that? Whether they cut their teeth on the franchise or added it to an already impressive resume, what does the cast of Star Wars do after The Rise of Skywalker? We're here to find out. If you're a Daisy Ridley superfan or someone who loves Mark Hamill, here's where you'll be able to find the cast of the Star Wars sequel trilogy after they leave that galaxy far, far away.

Daisy Ridley was virtually unknown, with only a handful of short film and TV credits to her name, when she was cast as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. When the film was released in 2015, she became an international star, opening a world of new acting opportunities overnight. Since her first Star Wars film she's continued to work on the sequel trilogy while also appearing in films like Peter Rabbit, Murder on the Orient Express, and in the title role of Ophelia. 

With Episode IX completing Rey's on-screen arc, Ridley will be free of certain film franchise constraints, but she hasn't lined up a huge number of projects just yet. Even before she jumped into finishing Rise of Skywalker she worked alongside Tom Holland on Chaos Walking, a film that's been subjected to repeated reshoots and, at the moment, does not have a release date. Still, that hasn't slowed Ridley down. Among her announced post-Skywalker plans are the World War II drama A Woman of No Importance, in which she'll play spy Virginia Hall, and the supernatural film Kolma, which has been in the works for several years and is rumored to be part of the Cloverfield universe.

John Boyega was a bit better known than Daisy Ridley when he signed on to play Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, because he'd already been a part of one of the great cult films of the 2010s: Attack the Block. Since Star Wars entered his life, though, Boyega's star has continued to rise, and he's taken advantage of the opportunity. Since The Force Awakens arrived, he's appeared in dramas like The Circle and Detroit, and even taken on another major sci-fi franchise with a starring role in Pacific Rim: Uprising. 

Like Ridley, Boyega hasn't lined up a great many projects following the conclusion of his Star Wars trilogy, but what he does have coming up sounds compelling. His next film will be Naked Singularity, in which he plays a public defender whose life begins to unravel and who, at his wit's end, decides to carry out a heist. He's also set to appear in the upcoming British miniseries Small Axe. 

Oscar Isaac's career had already spanned more than a decade and included an impressive series of diverse and compelling roles by the time Star Wars entered his life. His accomplishments before a galaxy far, far away included the likes of Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year, Sucker Punch, and Inside Llewyn Davis, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. Like everyone else who joined the cast of the sequel trilogy, though, Isaac's star rose even higher after The Force Awakens. Since then, he's continued to choose exciting roles in everything from X-Men: Apocalypse to Annihilation to Triple Frontier. 

After The Rise of Skywalker, Isaac will continue to build on his already-impressive resume with several projects, including another legendary sci-fi story. In 2020, Isaac will appear in director Denis Villenueve's upcoming big-screen adaptation of Dune as Duke Leto Atreidies, adding another major franchise to his filmography. His other upcoming films including the drama Big Gold Brick and the thriller The Card Counter.

Though the beginning of his screen acting career can be found way back in 2009 with a small TV role, prior to Star Wars Adam Driver was best known for his role as Adam on Lena Dunham's HBO series Girls. Somehow, that and his rising reputation as a dramatic actor on the indie scene were enough to secure him the role of the franchise's new primary villain, Kylo Ren. The role brought Driver international superstardom, but he has continued to interweave small dramatic roles with his franchise blockbusters, establishing himself as one of his generation's boldest actors. 

Driver's career since his Star Wars role began has already been quite exciting, with roles in everything from Silence to Logan Lucky to BlacKkKlansman, and he's not slowing down anytime soon. His new drama Marriage Story will release in the same timeframe as The Rise of Skywalker, and his other upcoming projects include the musical drama Annette and Ridley Scott's next historical epic, The Last Duel.

Domhnall Gleeson's career included a major franchise well before Star Wars came along. As his reputation built in the early 2010s he earned a role in the Harry Potter film series as Bill Weasley, and kept climbing with roles in films like Dredd and About Time. When Star Wars: The Force Awakens needed a secondary villain in the form of First Order General Hux, director J.J. Abrams went with Gleeson, cementing his place in another iconic franchise. 

Since then, Gleeson has continued to land high-profile roles in both blockbusters and smaller films, including Mother!, Peter Rabbit, and The Kitchen. After Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he'll next been seen in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, in which he reprises his dual roles as Jeremy Fisher and Thomas McGregor. He's also set to make a major play for the small screen with a new comedic thriller called Run, in which he'll star alongside Merritt Wever. In March of 2019, HBO picked up Run to series.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens had to introduce a number of new characters to the world of a galaxy far, far away, and make a worldwide audience fall in love with them. Star Wars: The Last Jedi had to build on that new foundation, and to do that writer/director Rian Johnson turned to Kelly Marie Tran. At the time, Tran was relatively unknown, with a resume consisting largely of small TV roles. As Resistance mechanic Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, she reached an international level of fame. 

So far, Tran's kept a relatively low profile outside of Star Wars, with her only other major work coming in the form of the Facebook Watch series Sorry for Your Loss, but that's set to change soon with a pair of high-profile voiceover roles. In the wake of The Rise of Skywalker, she's set to co-star in The Croods 2 as Dawn, and she'll also be joining Pixar's Monsters Inc. franchise with a role in the upcoming Disney+ series Monsters At Work.

Billie Lourd was born into the world of Star Wars. As the daughter of Carrie Fisher, she grew up with the franchise, and when The Force Awakens rolled around she got a chance to be a part of it. The Force Awakens marked her film acting debut as Lt. Connix, an aide to her mother's General Leia Organa. That same year, she co-starred in the Fox horror-comedy series Scream Queens, and her career was off and running. 

Since The Force Awakens, Lourd has continued to be a presence in Star Wars and in other roles on the big and small screen. She returned as Lt. Connix in The Last Jedi and reprises the role again in The Rise of Skywalker, and she also managed to add roles in Billionaire Boys Club and Booksmart, as well a spot in the stock company of American Horror Story, to her resume. 

Lourd's post-Star Wars plans remain somewhat shrouded in mystery, but that doesn't make them any less exciting. In October of 2019, American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy revealed that he's writing a new miniseries project specifically for Lourd. We have no idea what it is yet, but he promises it will be a "tribute to her talent."

It wouldn't be Star Wars without even more new characters on both the good and evil sides to root for/against in the third installment of a trilogy. For The Rise of Skywalker's Resistance, that tradition continues with Naomi Ackie, who's joining the cast as Jannah. We still know very little about Jannah's role in the finale of the sequel trilogy, but from what we've seen in the Episode IX trailers, she's going to have a major part to play in the climactic battle for the future of the galaxy. 

Prior to joining the Star Wars cast, Ackie was best known for her role in the 2016 film Lady Macbeth, as well as assorted TV roles including The Bisexual and Cleaning Up. In 2019, she joined the cast of the series The End of the F***ing World for its second season, and she also joined the cast of the Game of Thrones prequel pilot which was set to tell the story of the Long Night. Sadly, HBO later announced that the pilot would not be picked up to series, which sort of puts an end to what we know so far about Ackie's post-Star Wars plans. Once The Rise of Skywalker is out in the world, though, she'll likely have no shortage of opportunities.

Lupita Nyong'o's Hollywood breakthrough actually came a couple of years before she joined Star Wars, in the historical drama 12 Years a Slave. That film won her an Academy Award and instantly put her in a global spotlight that meant numerous film offers would come her way. One of these was for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the role of tavern keeper and intergalactic woman of mystery Maz Kanata. Maz's role has been small so far, with only single-scene appearances in both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but her impact has been big. She's a fan favorite supporting character, and she'll be back for The Rise of Skywalker. 

The years since The Force Awakens have brought even more high-profile roles for Nyong'o in films ranging from Little Monsters to Us to Black Panther, and she's far from done. After Star Wars she'll star in the female-driven spy thriller 355, the John Woo remake The Killer, and the upcoming TV series Americanah.

Mark Hamill could have stopped acting after Return of the Jedi and he would have remained a legendary pop culture figure forever thanks to his portrayal of Luke Skywalker. Thankfully, he did not stop, and the result is a diverse career that's included many screen acting roles and perhaps even more voiceover roles, including his famous work as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and the Batman: Arkham video game series. 

In 2015, Hamill was drafted to return to the Star Wars saga as Luke Skywalker, ushering in a new phase of his career that has only gained steam since. He's continued to spend a lot of time in voiceover booths in series ranging from Ultimate Spider-Man to Dimension 404, and in 2019 he added more beloved franchises to his resume with voice roles in Child's Play and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. In live-action, his resume's also grown with roles in the TV series Knightfall, the indie film Brigsby Bear, and more. 

So, what's next for Hamill? Well, he could conceivably never stop playing Luke Skywalker in various forms, but for the moment he's turning to a new animation project. Hamill has been cast as one of the voice actors in the upcoming series Invincible, an adult-oriented superhero series based on the Skybound Entertainment comic of the same name, written by The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman.