Captain Phasma Played by Gwendoline Christie of Game of Thrones, this helmeted commander of the First Order has been compared to Star Wars favorite Boba Fett for her air of badass mystery, and producers have announced that she’ll play an important role in future movies.

BB-8 Even months before the release of The Force Awakens, merchandise featuring this incredibly adorable droid was flying off shelves. Expect an even higher demand for toys and other memorabilia once fans get a glimpse of BB-8 in action.

Rathtar This deadly monster that runs wild on the Millennium Falcon is pretty much all teeth and tentacles, and should make for some pretty fun playsets for younger (and/or imaginatively twisted) fans.

Maz Kanata A thousand-year-old alien played by Lupita Nyong’o, Maz runs a bar for shady characters and has a long, mostly unexplained history with the Force. That’s the kind of thing just begging to be explored in novels and comic books.

Lor San Tekka Billed by the opening crawl as a longtime ally of Leia and the Rebels, Lor (played by Max von Sydow) only appears briefly, but his back story could fill in many details of the time between the original trilogy and the new movies.