Last week, the world suffered a tremendous loss when actress Carrie Fisher tragically passed away. Best known for playing Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars franchise, she was held in high regard by many and was a true Hollywood icon. After having appeared in J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens back in 2015, Fisher was all set to reprise her role in Star Wars: Episode VIII. From what we’ve heard, she completed all of her scenes before her she died and had also planned on coming back for Star Wars: Episode IX.
We still don’t know how the studio is going to move forward without her, but Heroic Hollywood is telling us today that Disney stands to receive a $50 million insurance payout for the actress’ death. The studio had taken out what’s known as “contract protection” insurance, which is triggered should an actor/actress not be able to fulfill their contractual obligations. As Fisher died before she could film her scenes in Episode IX, London insurance market Lloyd’s is now prepared to handle the full claim and according to Insurance Insider, it’ll be the market’s “biggest ever single personal accident insurance claim.”
As mentioned above, no one knows yet just how Disney plans to proceed creatively given the recent turn of events. They could use visual effects to bring her back like they did with Peter Cushing in Rogue One, but that proved to be pretty controversial and we can’t see them doing the same here. Fans definitely wouldn’t respond well to it. More than likely, she’ll be written out of the story in a respectful way. Without knowing too much about her role in Episode VIII, it’s hard to say how they’ll go about doing that, but we’ve no doubt that the studio will give her a proper sendoff.
Tell us, how do you think Disney will move on with the franchise now that Carrie Fisher is no longer with us? Take to the comments section below and give us your thoughts!
