LIKE Luke Skywalker dangling from the ledge in Cloud City, Star Wars fans should prepare themselves for an epic cliffhanger in next year’s sequel to The Force Awakens.

Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis, who had his breakout film role alongside Carrie Fisher in 1983’s Return of the Jedi as Wicket the Ewok, has confirmed he will appear in the as-yet-untitled sequel, directed by Rian Johnson.

The legendary British actor and comedian has appeared in three Star Wars films so far — Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens — and is set to also appear in this year’s first spin-off entry, Rogue One.

He played Professor Filius and Griphook in the Harry Potter films, and starred as a fictionalised version of himself in the sitcom Life’s Too Short, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

For many who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, however, Davis is probably best known for his starring role as the title character in Willow, the 1988 fantasy film written by George Lucas and directed by Ron Howard.

Speaking to news.com.au from the UK, Davis talked Star Wars, ‘80s nostalgia, and why the time is right for a long-awaited Willow sequel.

Q: How did you feel when The Force Awakens was announced?

“I’ve been a fan since 1977 when I first saw Star Wars: A New Hope when I was seven. I think like many other fans, I never thought I would hear them say, ‘We’re going to make another Star Wars movie.’ We thought 4-5-6 and 1-2-3, that was going to be it. I think there was always a sense that George Lucas had talked about the fact that he’d written this larger story of nine episodes, and he chose to start in the middle with episode four, and we were all surprised when we were getting the prequels. For me, [7-8-9] was always the most interesting part of the story. What happened to the heroes that I’ve grown to love beyond Return of the Jedi? I wanted to find out what became of them. So I was excited to see that, to hear that announcement, and then be a small part of that new Star Wars which has introduced a whole new generation to the films — children that weren’t even born even when the prequels came out — and reinvigorated people’s interest in it. Not that it waned particularly, either. The fans were keeping everything going in the meantime, between decades when there weren’t any films. So it’s a testament to the fans, and also now Disney’s faith in the franchise.”

Q: In that time were you interested things like the Star Wars books?

“No, I mean I’m not a massive fiction reader anyway, so that wasn’t something I was doing, but nonetheless Star Wars was a huge part of my life and career still. I was appearing at and hosting Star Wars Weekends events at Walt Disney World in Orlando every year, and I was hosting the Star Wars Celebration events in America and the UK, and a lot of the work I was doing was around releasing DVDs and all those things — so Star Wars for me never really went away.”

Q: What did you think when you finally sat down and watched it?

“I enjoyed it immensely. I’m excited by J.J. Abrams work anyway, I love his style. For me it’s very reminiscent of the films I went to when I was a kid. I loved Super 8 and I love the new Star Trek, and it just reminded me of many of the great films of the 1980s. There was such a great energy, I think he captured the humour of the original trilogy so well. What we loved about those films was that they didn’t take themselves too seriously in places and were able to kind of look at themselves and have a bit of a chuckle. There were some wonderful moments, some moving moments and it was full of all the action that we expect, so for me it ticked all the boxes, I loved it. And I think it sets up the trilogy very well. Obviously we’re moving into the territory of Episode VIII very soon as well, and much like Empire Strikes Back I’m sure it’s going to deliver some quite impactful story moments, and it’ll leave us with some cliffhangers as well which resolve in Episode IX.”

Q: Do you have a part in Episode VIII?

“I do, yes. That’s all I can say.”

Q: Speaking of ‘80s nostalgia, have you watched Stranger Things on Netflix?

“I have. I watched it a day or so after it came on Netflix. I was working on a TV drama and I was in my trailer at lunchtime and thought I should watch something. The idea of ‘80s nostalgia is what got me to start watching it, and I never binge watch series but this one I just literally couldn’t put down until I had watched all of it over the weekend, and then introduced it to my family who loved it as well. It’s interesting when you look at it — was it set in the ‘80s so it didn’t end up snookering itself? We have mobile phones now, internet technologies that we didn’t have in the ‘80s. It allows characters to be able to solve things in a much speedier manner, often they’re not in as much jeopardy. Whereas in the ‘80s it was about the walkie talkies, and to discover things you had to ask your class teacher. You can’t just Google, otherwise the kids could sit in a room with a mobile phone and solve the whole thing. It’s also probably a time that was a bit more shadowy. I know governments get up to stuff now that you don’t know about, but even then it was a little more shady. The ‘80s was my decade. It reminded me of The Goonies other films I love. And the performances were great, that’s what really makes it work so well.”

Q: Willow was one of those films. What impact did it have on your career?

“It was huge at the time. I was 17, and George Lucas created Willow with me in mind. It was quite an adventure in more ways than one. I was playing the lead, it was the first part that I’d ever had where it was me, as opposed to be being an alien creature or something like that. It was about my performance, it was about the subtleties of acting. I was experienced at being in movies, but I wasn't experienced with acting at that point, so it was a learning curve, but one that I was guided through more than ably by the brilliant Ron Howard. He was a fabulous director and mentor for me. I’m really proud of the film still. People still watch it, people talk to me about it, it’s a film that’s well loved by generations of people, people that grew up watching it when they were kids in the ‘80s, and then handed it on to their kids, and those kids have grown up and they’re handing it down to their kids. The ‘80s was a great decade for fantasy sci-fi genre films, it’s just lovely that Willow fits into that category.”

Q: Do you think it would benefit from a remake like all these other franchises?

“I think it’s probably best left alone. But I don’t think a sequel would be out of the question. It would be interesting to see where the characters ended up. Val Kilmer and I, we’ve talked about it, we’ve actually talked about it quite a bit. He would very much like to do it as well. It’s about, is there more story, and I think there is. Did Willow become a sorcerer? He was fairly good at it but he wasn’t brilliant. And what became of Elora Danan when she grew up? There are few question marks that remain, and the world has been created, we have the characters, we know the environment, all of that is fabulous. To revisit, I’d enjoy it immensely.”

Q: How do you make a sequel happen?

“I don’t know, it’s just one of those things. The interesting thing now is Disney has acquired Lucasfilm and all of their library and back catalogue. I notice now whenever Willow is shown on terrestrial television in the UK, it’s known as ‘Disney’s Willow’. So they’ve very much kind of branded it now. [The question is] whether they’re going to look back over the catalogue and think, ‘That’s something we can look at doing.’ I mean, the reimagining of The Lion King has just been announced, so they often look back at work they’ve done and like to reimagine it, and they’ve been very successful — Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast next year. There are a lot of films that have worked very well. So [maybe] a reimagining, but I think a sequel would be much better — because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play Willow! I was talking to George Lucas and Ron Howard about this many years ago, and I said, ‘Everyone would love to see another Willow movie.’ George said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we could do that, couldn’t we, Ron? The only thing is we’d have to recast because you’re too old.’ I think that was George’s wry sense of humour.”

Q: If you had your way, how would you see a sequel playing out?

“It would focus on Elora Danan and how’s she’s ruling the kingdom at that point. Bavmorda probably would have found some way to get back from the nether world and would start to wreak havoc on the land once again in a much more powerful way. Willow, I don’t think he would be an accomplished sorcerer at this stage, but during the course of the story I think he would become much better. Madmartigan — I’m not sure what Val would be up to. Probably, the fact that he dressed as a woman in the first film, I think he becomes quite fond of doing that and spends most of the time dressed as a woman in this one. There you have it. If Disney’s reading this then I’m sure they’ll want to write that script straight away.”

Foxtel Movies will be showing all seven Star Wars films back-to-back for the first time on TV in Australia — and only the second time in the world — on its dedicated Star Wars pop-up channel starting tonight, Friday 30 September, in a weekend-long marathon.