Dominic Monaghan has joined the cast of ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’.
The 41-year-old actor will reunite with ‘Lost’ creator and executive producer, J.J. Abrams, who is directing the new movie in the franchise, after previously begging him for a role in ‘The Force Awakens’, ET reports.
Dominic previously said: "Give me a lightsaber, I’ll do anything. [Abrams] said, ‘We’re putting together a cast of unknowns. We want to follow the ’77 New Hope cast because obviously, Harrison Ford wasn’t well known at that point, Mark Hamill wasn’t and Carrie Fisher wasn’t either.
"What he said was, ‘We don’t want to fall into that mistake of people going, ‘Oh, it’s that guy from that thing!’ and then you’re completely out of the Star Wars universe’."
Meanwhile, Samuel L. Jackson recently revealed he wants to return to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise.
The 69-year-old actor portrayed Jedi master Mace Windu in Episodes I-III and though his alter ego was killed off after losing an arm and being thrown from a window during a fight in the third film, ‘Revenge of the Sith’, he hasn’t given up hope of being asked to reprise the character in some form.
He said: "You know, it’s not that crazy that Jedi can fall from great heights and survive.
"And how many one-handed people are roaming about in that galaxy? Quite a few…
"I’ve still got the old Jedi spirit. I’m down.
"If they call me, I’ll show up – hell, I’m hanging around just for that.
"I’d even show up as a hologram or some s**t."
The veteran actor admitted he urged creator George Lucas not to kill off his alter ego even though he understood why his character was more disposable than others.
He said: "I was really the only person they could do something to in the movie to create some turmoil, because everyone else shows up in the original films.
"I kept saying to George, ‘You sure about this? I can kill this dude – you know that, right?’ "
Dominic Monaghan joins Star Wars Episode IX
