Ruthlessly threatening to merge the cornerstones of the various geek genres—potentially causing some kind of nerd apocalypse, or possibly just yet another Comic-Con—J.J. Abrams has cast his old Lost buddy, Dominic Monaghan, in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX. This news comes to us courtesy of Deadline, faster they you can, say, spend upwards of an entire afternoon trying to come up with a joke that merges “That’s no moon” with “Not Penny’s boat” in an enjoyable or organic way.
Monaghan’s best-known film role, of course, is from Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Ring movies, where he played eventual surprise action hero Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck. There’s no word yet on who he’ll be playing in Episode IX, but he sounds pretty excited to get another billion-dollar franchise under his belt, releasing a statement noting that, “The galaxy far far away has had almost as much influence as the one I live in, so I am delighted to be involved.”