Lately I’ve been obsessing over Maz Kanata‘s mysterious acquisition of Luke and Anakin’s long-lost lightsaber. “It’s a good question for another time,” she told Han when he asked about it, leaving us with a chasm of unexplained vital information. Well now we appear to have an idea for when that other time might come: Episode VIII, because the film’s director, Rian Johnson has confirmed Maz’s presence in the next movie.

On his personal Tumblr today, Johnson shared a photo from the set of the movie with Maz’s face on two large screens, and someone—almost definitely Maz herself, Lupita Nyong’o—seemingly being filmed in a motion capture suit.

This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise if you pay attention to every bit of Star Wars news that comes our way, because just yesterday we told you about a photo that Mark Hamill posted of him and Nyong’o sharing a hug—a picture that Oscar Isaac photo-bombed. Considering Hamill had one scene with Rey in The Force Awakens and no one else, I doubt Nyong’o would have just been visiting him to catch up.

Maz’s appearance in the next movie seemed like a certainty, considering how crucial she was to the major turning point in The Force Awakens—not to mention her possession of that most sacred of lightsabers—but it’s a lot more fun to start speculating on her role going forward now that we know she will definitely be appearing in the next movie.

Speaking of the next movie, have you SEEN the new aliens?!

So what are your theories on her role going forward? How about the story behind her getting Luke’s lost lightsaber? We want you to appear in our comments section to let us know what you think.

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Featured Image: Lucasfilm