At the end of the year, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will conclude the epic saga of science-fiction films George Lucas started back in 1977. And with it will be the final onscreen appearance of one of its great stars, Carrie Fisher.
The actress, who passed away in 2016, will play the iconic Princess Leia one last time thanks to some unused footage from The Force Awakens. One thing everybody, cast included, can agree on is that she is simply irreplaceable.
But how’s this going to work? Director J.J. Abrams has said he’s figured out a way to use what’s available from the archive to complete her story, but nobody knows what that means just yet. However, there’ve been rumors that Anthony Daniels’ loudmouth droid C-3PO may have a more active role in the upcoming film, and a popular new fan theory compliments that rumor quite well.
Reddit user ThatGeek303 suggests that C-3PO’s “prominence is also to act as a surrogate for Leia,” working as the “middle man between our new group of heroes and Leia.”
“Leaks have suggested that Threepio is important to the film’s plot, but what if his prominence is also to act as a surrogate for Leia? He could be middle man between our new group of heroes and Leia giving her character more of a presence in the film despite not actually being on screen.”
This idea, if put into practice, would give two of the franchise’s biggest stars a nice little boost of screen time and a fitting tribute. This way, Leia could be given her own complete arc, despite the actress’ untimely death, and C-3PO could be given more to do.
Of course, there’ll be no way of proving this theory until we get some additional information about the story. We aren’t expecting to see any more big details until SDCC 2019 in July, where some of the cast and crew are booked for a panel. But the only way to get your hands on the real answers is to wait until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releases in theaters on December 20th.