Doctor Who star Matt Smith joins the cast of Star Wars: Episode IX

Variety reports that former Doctor Who star Matt Smith has been cast in a “key role” in Star Wars: Episode IX. At this point, it’s impossible to know who Smith will play, but he’s British and white, so there’s a good chance he’ll be a bad guy.

Smith played the Eleventh Doctor for four years on Doctor Who before landing the role of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on Netflix’s The Crown, which earned him an Emmy nomination. Smith joins an already stellar cast that includes Oscar Isaacs (Poe Dameron), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), and people like Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie, and Dominic Monaghan in unspecified roles. Mark Hamill is expected to return as Luke Skywalker, as well,  but you know, as a ghost version of Luke.

So we don’t know who Smith will play, but can we guess? With Supreme Leader Snoke now dead at the hands of his own apprentice, there could be a power struggle between the remaining First Order leaders to see who will control the evil regime; I could see Smith in the mix there. But really, it’s a crapshoot; he could play Rey’s dad for all we know.

Another of Smith’s Episode IX costars will be Kelly Marie Tran, who made her Star Wars debut as the feisty Rose Tico in The Last Jedi. Tran suffered the ire of online trolls who did not like her character, with some suggesting she was added just to diversity the cast. The harassment eventually got bad enough or the actress to shutter her Instagram account.

Recently, Tran wrote an editorial in the The New York Times about her experience. “It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them,” she wrote. “Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories.”

"Because the same society that taught some people they were heroes, saviors, inheritors of the Manifest Destiny ideal, taught me I existed only in the background of their stories, doing their nails, diagnosing their illnesses, supporting their love interests — and perhaps the most damaging — waiting for them to rescue me. And for a long time, I believed them."

Tran describes how her parents changed their names to sound more American, and how the trolls made her feel less than human. “And as much as I hate to admit it, I started blaming myself. I thought, ‘Oh, maybe if I was thinner’ or ‘Maybe if I grow out my hair’ and, worst of all, ‘Maybe if I wasn’t Asian.’ For months, I went down a spiral of self-hate, into the darkest recesses of my mind, places where I tore myself apart, where I put their words above my own self-worth.”

But after some soul-searching, she realized she didn’t need to change for anyone, and that she wanted to live in a world “where people of all races, religions, socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, gender identities and abilities are seen as what they have always been: human beings.”

"You might know me as Kelly. I am the first woman of color to have a leading role in a “Star Wars” movie. I am the first Asian woman to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. My real name is Loan. And I am just getting started."

You can read her full editorial here. Tran and her fellow castmates are currently filming Star Wars: Episode IX at Pinewood Studios in London. It’s set to hit theaters on December 20.

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