Rise of Skywalker's new character has a connection to a fan favourite

After months of silence with just one teaser trailer to whet our appetite, more details about the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are finally making their way into the world – and they're only leaving us more intrigued.

As well as a look at some new footage, this weekend's Disney's D23 Expo also hosted a panel with many members of the Star Wars cast – and franchise newcomer Keri Russell, who will be playing the mysterious new character Zorri Bliss, teased a bit about what we can expect.

"First of all, the main thing is my son actually thinks I'm cool now. I had this amazing costume and this helmet which I loved to wear and didn't take it off for the first two days. I found it strangely empowering and exciting," she said.

"I can't wait for you to meet Zorri. She's very cool and a little bit shady. She's kind of a criminal and sort of this old friend of Poe's."

Related: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker featurette hints at the end of an era for new trilogy characters

Zorri Bliss is described as a "masked scoundrel", who we will see in the Thieves' Quarter of the snow-dusted world called Kijimi.

How she actually knows trigger happy fly boy Poe Dameron remains to be seen, but as actor Oscar Isaac himself added: "We all have a past, right? Baby, we were young…"

Related: The Rise of Skywalker's Daisy Ridley teases final film will feature "one of the most epic fights" in Star Wars

Earlier this year, Keri shared that she cried the first time she read director-writer JJ Abram's version of the script, saying that JJ "respects" what the film should be.

"When I read his script that he wrote I cried," she said. "I mean, who knows what it will turn out to be, and I hope it remains true to what he originally wanted.

"He's not trying to change it to be something else. He really respects what it is."

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Thursday, December 19 in the UK and Friday, December 20 in the US.

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Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.