Star Wars: Episode IX remains a project shrouded in mystery, and that goes especially for the role of Leia Organa in this trilogy-closing work. But while the late Carrie Fisher’s brother Todd Fisher is prohibited from offering any details on how the upcoming release will use its old footage of Leia, he at least seems very happy with what director J.J. Abrams has planned.
Speaking on Good Morning America, Todd expressed his excitement about the send-off lined up for Carrie Fisher’s character:
“We’re not allowed to talk about the details of anything. But we’re thrilled at what’s been done.”
The inclusion of late actors has been a source of controversy for Lucasfilm in the past. While the return of Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story showed that digital technology is capable of doing wondrous things with old characters, many felt it was in poor taste to reanimate the late Peter Cushing in an act of CGI puppetry.
But while the ensuing backlash for Rogue One has seemingly convinced the studio to give such trickery a rest, Todd Fisher has offered his assurances that Leia’s scenes have been blended seamlessly into the action of Episode IX:
“There’s a lot of minutes of footage. I don’t mean just outtakes. This is unused, new content that could be woven into the storyline. That’s what’s going to give everybody such a great kick. It’s going to look like it was meant to be. Like it was shot yesterday.”
For next year’s release, Abrams is in the difficult position of having to offer a fitting send-off to Leia using only footage that was previously shot from the sets of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and the passing of Fisher two year’s ago makes the emotional stakes for this project all the higher.
Nonetheless, Todd Fisher seems to think the movie does his sister justice, while Oscar Isaac also mentioned last month that the film deals with her absence “in a really beautiful way.” We’ll see what sort of finale Abrams has in mind when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
