Oscar Isaac Says Star Wars: Episode IX Deals With Carrie Fisher’s Absence In A Beautiful Way

As the all-important final film in this current Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX has the difficult task of wrapping up Leia’s story in a manner that’s tasteful and fitting using only pre-recorded footage of the character from the last two episodes. But according to Oscar Isaac, writer-director J.J. Abrams has managed to do the late Carrie Fisher justice with next year’s release.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, the actor known for playing Poe Dameron explained how returning to the set without Fisher has been bittersweet, but the movie finds ways of addressing her passing.

“The story deals with that quite a bit,” Isaac said. “It’s a strange thing to be on the set and to be speaking of Leia and having Carrie not be around. There’s definitely some pain in that.”

He goes on to stress that the big screen finale of General Leia is touchingly handled, saying:

“It deals with the amazing character that Carrie created in a really beautiful way.”

Despite Fisher’s absence being felt on the set, Isaac also mentions that there’s plenty of fun to be had in filming this trilogy-closer, claiming that there’s now a greater looseness to the process than there was for the first two installments.

“There’s a looseness and an energy to the way that we’re shooting this that feels very different,” Isaac said. “It’s been really fun being back with J.J., with all of us working in a really close way. I just feel like there’s an element of almost senioritis, you know? Since everything just feels way looser and people aren’t taking it quite as seriously, but still just having a lot of fun. I think that that energy is gonna translate to a really great movie.”

These statements echo Isaac’s own from last month, when the actor mentioned that the team seems more open to trying new things on set. And while the star has generally refrained from going into specifics, Isaac did let it slip a few months ago that the recently depleted Resistance will be engaging in some guerilla warfare to overthrow the First Order.

Perhaps this development can explain the set photos we saw earlier this year, in which Poe, Finn, Chewie, and a few fellow travelers are seen riding through a rural region. Either way, we’ll find out if Star Wars: Episode IX can offer a satisfying finale to both this current trilogy and the story of Leia when the film arrives in theaters on December 20th, 2019.