Carrie will get her Star Wars swansong, filmmaker confirms
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SHE played one of the most well-loved characters of the Star Wars films, and is certainly its best-loved actress. So when Carrie Fisher died suddenly in 2016, a question mark hung over the future of the franchise and her character, Princess Leia.
Now Disney and Lucasfilm have delighted fans by confirming that previously unseen footage of Fisher will be used to conclude her character’s story in the as-yet-untitled new Episode IX.
“We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” JJ Abrams, the director, said. “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 honour Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”
Fisher’s character has evolved over the decades, from the bun-haired Princess Leia Organa, who told Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977’s Star Wars that he was her “only hope”, to the famously under-attired but steely willed prisoner in 1983’s Return of the Jedi.
In the latest trilogy, she has risen to become General Organa, military commander of the Resistance, now locked in a galaxy-spanning battle not with Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire, but Kylo Ren – played by American actor Adam Driver – and the First Order, led by the mysterious and powerful werful Supreme Leader Snoke.
It comes after fans voiced relief last January that Disney had “no plans” to recreate Fisher via CGI, as it did in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars rs Story.
For that spin-off, set immediately before the events of the original movie, the Disney effects team recreated the face of Fisher circa 1977 and merged their work with live footage of a body double.
The simulacrum of Fisher in the movie received mixed reviews, with Time magazine calling it “plastic” and The Washington on
Post describing her face as reminiscent of a plastered death mask – although The e Daily Telegraph’s Robbie Collin called the effect “flawless”. Todd Fisher last night welcomed the news that footage of his late sister would be included in the new film. He said: “As we, her family, as well as her extended family of fans around the world so believe, Carrie’s Princess Leia is forever entrenched in the franchise and her indelible presence is fundamental to the film.
“JJ Abrams understood Carrie’s iconic role, and he has masterfully recrafted this final entry to include this unused and very last footage of Carrie ever taken, without resorting to CGI or animatronics.
“Our family and her fans will look forward with great anticipation for this one. Her force will forever be with us.” The news formed part of an official announcement of the cast which confirmed established faces from the latest trilogy would return, including Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o and Domhnall Gleeson, along with Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd, who plays Lieutenant Connix.
Original cast members Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels and Billy Dee Williams will also return as Luke Skywalker, C-3P0 and the swashbuckling Lando Calrissian, respectively. New cast members will include rising star Naomi Ackie and veteran actor Richard E Grant.
The score will once again be the work of composer John Williams, who has five Oscars and 24 Grammys for his work on films including Star Wars, Superman, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Jaws.
Abrams returns to the helm after directing 2015’s The Force Awakens, the first of this new trilogy commissioned after Disney bought the rights from creator George Lucas in 2012. Production will begin on Wednesday at Pinewood Studios with a release scheduled for December 2019.
‘We loved Carrie Fisher. Finding a satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us’