Leia and Lando return: Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams will appear in stella, star Wars: Episode IX 

Leia and Lando return: Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams will appear in 

Carrie Fisher is getting a final moment in the galactic sun.

, with director J.J. Abrams using previously unused footage of the late actress to conclude the story of Leia Organa.

The news came with today’s cast announcement for the film, which included confirmation that Billy Dee Williams will reprise the role of Lando Calrissian and Mark Hamill will return as Luke Skywalker. His “See you around, kid” pledge to Kylo Ren will clearly be fulfilled.

C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels, the only performer to have a role in every single

Newcomers to the cast include Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant in unspecified roles alongside returning castmates Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd.

Ackie, who won a British Independent Film Award last year for most promising newcomer, is best known for playing the largely mute housemaid Anna in the 2016 dark period drama

Grant is the veteran character actor known for everything from his breakthrough in 1987’s 

John Wilson/©2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.; Lucasfilm Ltd.; Everett Collection

The true surprise of the announcement was the decision to return to the Leia story and use previous footage to do it.

The footage of Fisher, who died in December 2016 after finishing work on

Ever since Fisher’s untimely passing, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has said they would not recast or use digitization to keep the character going.

Now, Abrams says there was no way to close out the story, written by him and

Oscar-winner Chris Terrio, without finding a way to bring back her character in some fashion.

“We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” Abrams said in a statement. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”

Lourd costars as Resistance Lieutenant Connix in the series, and was frequently in scenes with her mother.

Missing from the cast list was any mention of Keri Russell, a frequent Abrams collaborator from the TV series

. Sources told EW she was close to signing for a role, but sometimes more cast members are added later.

UPDATE: That didn’t take long. Now Russell has been added to the official cast list. Guess that ink finally dried.

The news will relieve fans of Lando Calrissian, who have been asking for Williams to return to the series in each of the previous two saga films. Finally, we’ll see what became of the former Cloud City baron and intergalactic hustler.

Hamill has made no secret of his desire to return as Luke Skywalker, declaring his hope that he could reprise the role in spirit form after the apparent end of the Jedi warrior at the end of

The announcement also confirmed that veteran composer John Williams, would be back for

, after contributing only a small portion of original music for

will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Michelle Rejwan, and executive produced by Callum Greene and Jason McGatlin.

The crew includes cinematographer Dan Mindel, production designers Rick Carter and Kevin Jenkins, costume designer Michael Kaplan, creature and droid design guru Neal Scanlan, editors Maryann Brandon and Stefan Grube, visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett, first assistant director Tommy Gormley, and second unit director Victoria Mahoney.

Filming begins Aug. 1 at Pinewood Studios outside London, with a release set for December 2019.