Rian Johnson Previews Carrie Fisher’s Final Moments In Star Wars: The Last Jedi

This weekend past, the Star Wars community paused to remember the late, great Carrie Fisher on what would have been her 61st birthday.

It’s going on ten months since we lost the actress, who shot to fame as Princess Leia, the real rebel, in Lucasfilm’s original trilogy. She later reprised that iconic role through The Force Awakens, where she was introduced as General Leia Organa, the fearless leader responsible for overseeing The Resistance.

And though Leia was originally earmarked for a fairly sizeable role across both The Last Jedi and J.J. Abrams’ untitled Episode IX, the creative minds at Lucasfilm quickly cobbled together to draft up a revised story arc for Leia Organa in light of last year’s tragedy. That means any plans to incorporate the character in Episode IX have been scrapped entirely – CGI or otherwise – which left Rian Johnson with the rather tricky task of writing her out of the saga.

That’s right, The Last Jedi won’t kill off Leia Organa, despite what the sequel’s trailer would have you believe, and while chatting to USA Today, Rian Johnson previewed Leia’s final moments, and how he hopes they’ll deliver a poignant, yet joyful ending to Carrie Fisher’s Star Wars legacy.

Having these scenes in the film recontextualize tragically with her not being here anymore, it’s incredibly emotional. For the next few months, seeing the fans …. process the loss and celebrate her as Leia one last time, it’s going to be intense. I think it’s going to be really sad but really joyful, I hope. She really kicks (butt) as General Leia, and I’m happy for that.

It’s still unclear how much screen time has been devoted to Leia in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but with a December 15th release date in place, it won’t be too much longer until we have some firm answers.