Carrie Fisher’s Brother Reveals Original Plot Details About Leia’s Role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

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Nov 7, 2019

A new report details that Carrie Fisher’s General Leia Organa was supposed to be the original Last Jedi in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In an interview with Yahoo, Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher’s brother, explains:

“She was going to be the big payoff in the final film that was what the intent was prior to her exiting. She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. That’s cool right?”

In an interview with Vanity Fair back in May 2017, Kennedy revealed that Carrie Fisher’s General Organa was going to play a major role in Episode IX, now titled Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

“Well, as you can imagine, we were really stunned by the death of Carrie. So we had mapped something out a year ago that [Episode IX writer-director] Colin Trevorrow was working on. In fact, he delivered a script to us in early December. So her death was a real shock, and changed things quite dramatically.”

Kennedy made it clear that Fisher’s role as Leia would have been “really significant” for Episode IX. However, she noted that Fisher’s death did not change what happened in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, “No. It’s unchanged.”

Todd Fisher went on to hint at possible plot details for The Rise of Skywalker, “People use to say to me, ‘Why is it that Carrie never gets to use a lightsaber and get to chop up bad guys?’ Even as a person of her age, Obi-Wan when he was in his prime, was Carrie’s age. When you think about it, Alec Guinness, when he gets cut down by Vader in the first Star Wars, he was about Carrie’s age.”

Related: Rumor: First Scene of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Revealed

Alleged plot leaks have indicated that General Organa will pick up a lightsaber and train Rey in the Force. The leaks come from Making Star Wars and Reddit user JediPaxis. In fact, Making Star Wars alleges that the opening scene of the film will see Fisher’s Leia training Rey. JediPaxis’ leak details that Fisher’s Leia will also appear in a flashback being trained or at the very least discussing Jedi training with her brother, Luke.

However, more recent leaks indicate these scenes might have been significantly cut as Bespin Bulletin details Rey will attempt to give Leia Luke’s old lightsaber during training on the forest planet seen in the trailers.

Todd Fisher discussed the footage J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm had that is being incorporated into The Rise of Skywalker, “I felt that the stuff that Carrie did in The Last Jedi was her best work. She had really come to grips with who Princess Leia was, and that she and her were one. And the fact that they had all of this other footage, I didn’t even know. They had eight minutes of footage. Yeah it’s a lot of footage.”

He continued, “They grabbed every frame and analyzed it… and then reverse-engineered it and [got] it into the story the right way. It’s kind of magical.”

J.J. Abrams previously discussed how he incorporated Fisher into The Rise of Skywalker. He told Vanity Fair, “It’s hard to even talk about it without sounding like I’m being some kind of cosmic spiritual goofball, but it felt like we suddenly had found the impossible answer to the impossible question.”

He also revealed that Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd, who plays Lieutenant Connix, approached him to appear in scenes with her mother in The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams described those scenes:

“And so, there are moments where they’re talking; there are moments where they’re touching. There are moments in this movie where Carrie is there, and I really do feel there is an element of the uncanny, spiritual, you know, classic Carrie, that it would have happened this way, because somehow it worked. And I never thought it would.”

Vanity Fair also reports:

“Due to this careful digital patchwork that nonetheless leaves Fisher’s full human performance untouched, Leia’s integration into the film is so complete, she physically interacts with some of the other characters in The Rise of Skywalker.”

Abrams explains this is seen in the trailers where she is seen hugging Rey, “You see it in that scene with her hugging. And it’s like she gets to be in this movie where we would have wanted this moment.”

What do you make of Todd Fisher’s comments? What role do you expect General Organa to have in The Rise of Skywalker?

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