Carrie Fisher’s brother has revealed new details about director J.J. Abrams’ original plans for Princess Leia in the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.
“She was going to be the big payoff in the final film. She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. That’s cool, right?” her brother Todd Fisher told Yahoo. However, due to the actor’s untimely death, the original plans for her role in the film were changed.
“The truth is that J.J. Abrams was great friends with Carrie,” he added. “He had an extraordinary sense of love for her. They had eight minutes of footage. They grabbed every frame and analyzed it… and then reverse-engineered it and [got] it into the story the right way. It’s kind of magical.”
Star Wars movies and TV shows have featured many memorable lightsaber duels over the decades, but Leia’s true potential as a powerful force-wielder was only really explored in expanded universe novels. Those stories were famously wiped from the canon when Disney decided to move forward with the new trilogy. As a result, many of Leia’s admirers feel the princess-general was never given her proper due as a Skywalker.
Instead, Rey has emerged as the female Jedi many Star Wars movie fans have been waiting for. The trailers for Rise of Skywalker tease more epic lightsaber battles to come, including at least one duel between Kylo Ren and Rey in the midst of Death Star debris. If Leia originally had a role in these upcoming action scenes, fans will never get to see it. That’s why the third movie in the new trilogy will be a very bittersweet experience for countless Princess Leia fans. The Rise Of Skywalker will be released on December 20, 2019, minus one very important Jedi.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film arrives December 20.
