We’ve heard a lot of different stories about how Star Wars: Episode IX, the final part of the revived trilogy, will handle the death of Carrie Fisher. After her tragic passing last December, it was rumoured that CGI would be used to recreate her likeness for the movie – in the mold of Peter Cushing in Rogue One – but this was ruled out by Lucasfilm not too long ago. It was also said that Episode 9 was to have had a major role for Leia and that the film’s storyline had to be completely rewritten after Fisher died.
The truth is, we really don’t know just yet how exactly the actress’ loss will be dealt with, as director Colin Trevorrow and his team are still working on how they’ll handle Leia in the movie and more specifically, how best to salute Carrie Fisher’s immense contribution to the franchise. In a new interview with The Irish Examiner (via StarWars.Net), Trevorrow spoke a little bit more about this, talking about the emotional and logistical issues concerning working around Fisher’s death.
While the director couldn’t say much – obviously – he does promise that his film will “honor” her memory and “keep her soul alive.”
“She had a major role in the film and it’s something we had to deal with emotionally at first. Now we’ve had to deal with it in very practical ways and in a form of storytelling we know is going to honor her and keep her soul alive, but it is an unfortunate reality that we’re just going to have to handle. It’s been tough emotionally – and logistically we’ll figure that part out, but she was just very important to the Star Wars family and that was the hardest part.”
This follows on from earlier statements that Trevorrow’s made in which he said that Fisher’s death would be treated “with love and respect” in Episode IX, which we don’t doubt. It’s clear that the director understands how much the actress meant to her millions of fans around the world and that he and his team are going to do their best to send the iconic character of General/Princess Leia off in the way she deserves. How exactly that’ll be accomplished is still unclear, but we have full faith that Lucasfilm and Trevorrow will find the right way to do it.
Principal photography begins on Star Wars: Episode IX in January 2018 ahead of its May 24th, 2019 release date. Before then, however, we can look forward to The Last Jedi, which blasts into theatres this December.
